In recent days, manufacturers of bottled water such as sodas, whose factories take drinking water, have had to react to the climatic conditions which are causing the reduction of resources.
Faced with the drought affecting France, the mineral water industry, like that of sodas, must adapt. Nestlé, Danone as well as Coca-Cola, three beverage production giants, had to limit or suspend some of their factories in different departments.
In the Vosges, Nestlé suspends two boreholes
In Vittel (Vosges), Nestlé Waters, a French subsidiary of the Swiss group Nestlé, suspended two of its six boreholes. This is mineral water that the company draws from the Vosges to produce and market bottles of the Hépar brand. This decision is related “to the vagaries of the weather”has explained the group on Thursday May 4 in a press release that franceinfo was able to consult.
These two boreholes “have been identified as particularly sensitive, due to their shallow depth, to climatic hazards. This affects the availability of water resources in these boreholes and makes it very difficult to maintain the stability of the essential characteristics of natural mineral water” . In Vittel, Nestlé Waters employs nearly 600 people.
In Essonne, Coca-Cola called to preserve groundwater
A few hundred kilometers further west, in Essonne, a Coca-Cola factory has been drawing on the water table of Grigny since the mid-1980s to produce sodas. A practice that the communist mayor Philippe Rio has been trying to abolish for a few years. If the current level of this water table is not “not particularly” worrying, the city councilor is keen to “preserving this natural resource”. “There is enough surface water to supply the Coca-Cola factory without pumping groundwater”, explains to franceinfo Aymeric Duvoisin, the director of the cabinet of the mayor of Grigny. The town hall wants the company to connect to the city’s public water distribution network.
“Agreement in principle” so that the Coca-Cola factory in Grigny “stop pumping groundwater” was found between the municipality and the multinational and “we are in the process of creating the technical conditions” of a connection of the factory to the public water distribution network of the city, specified the mayor (PCF), Philippe Rio, at the end of April.
For its part, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the Western European bottler of the American soft drink giant, replied in a press release that“at this stage the agreement with the municipality [était] in discussion”. The company says it works “with the municipality on terms to buy city water for a part” of his drinks.
The group obtained in 1986 a prefectural authorization to draw from the water table, in exchange for a royalty paid to the State via the Seine-Normandy water agency.. “It is the only Coca-Cola factory in France that pumps groundwater, the company must regulate this”, we continue at the town hall of Grigny.
In Puy-de-Dôme, restrictions for Danone
Faced with the drought, the prefecture of Puy-de-Dôme extended, Tuesday, May 2, the water restriction measures to 31 municipalities, including that of Volvic, where the French group Danone exploits the famous mineral water. These rules apply until June 30, for “limit the risk of shortage of drinking water”according to a press release from the prefecture.
This translates into new rules for individuals, but also for manufacturers, forced to reduce their withdrawals from the drinking water network by 25%. But the Volvic Water Company (SEV), of the Danone group, has signed a plan for the rational use of water (PURE),pledging to reduce its monthly direct debits authorized by the State by 5% in the event of an alert. It will do so in May and June, a company spokesperson told AFP.
Industrial uses of water represent 8% of fresh water withdrawals in France, according to the government. Emmanuel Macron presented a water plan at the end of March to better cope with episodes of drought, affirming that an effort would be requested in particular from the industry.