Issued on:
Global food and beverage giant Nestlé said Thursday that it would stop extracting from two mineral water wells in eastern France due to drought and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions.
The group’s mineral water subsidiary, Nestlé Waters, which owns brands such as Vittel and Perrier, said it had suspended operations at two wells used to produce its Hepar water in the Vosges region of eastern France.
Another four wells will continue to be used for the brand, which is coveted for its high levels of magnesium.
“Like the whole of the industry, Nestlé Waters faces worsening climatic conditions, with more intense and frequent events, such as regular droughts followed by heavy rain, which affect operating conditions at some wells on its site in the Vosges,” the group told AFP.
The two Hepar wells were identified as “particularly vulnerable” because of their shallow depth which means it is “very difficult to maintain the stability of the essential characteristics of a natural mineral water”.
France as a whole saw 32 days without significant rainfall in January and February, a winter drought that followed record heat last summer that saw emergency water measures put in place for most of the country.
An estimated 75 percent of French groundwater sources were at moderately low or very low levels in April, according to the state-run French Geological Survey (BRGM).
Water restrictions are currently in place for 20 out of 96 departments on the mainland, with three judged to be in crisis in the southeast of the country.
Other French mineral waters are also affected by the increasing scarcity of water, including the famed Volvic brand which is extracted from the formerly volcanic hills of central France.
Authorities in the Puy-de-Dome area widened water restrictions on Tuesday this week.
The owner of Volvic, French multinational Danone, is set to decrease its monthly water extraction by five percent in May and June, the company told AFP.
(AFP)
For all the latest Health News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
