A new report confidential of theRegional health agency (ARS) Occitanie points out “the health risk” of water on the site of Perrier in Vergèze in the Gard. In this report, the health authorities invite Perrier to considerstop of the production ofmineral water on this site.
In this new report, ARS Occitanie invites Nestlé Waters to “strategically question another possible food use of the exploitation of current mineral water catchments”, on the sole condition of providing “health safety guarantees complementary”.
Nestlé Waters used banned treatments
As a reminder, last April, an order from the prefect of Gard prohibited the exploitation of one of the seven wells on the Vergèze site. After the passage of a storm, this borehole was contaminated by bacteria “of fecal origin (coliforms, escherichia coll) but also by germs of the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa”. As a precaution, several hundred pallets of bottles had been destroyed.
If this contamination is linked to a climatic episode, it has been shown that the water tables which supply these wells see their quality degrade.
To mask these contaminations, Nestlé Waters admitted to having used prohibited purification treatments.
Ouizille notes “health risks on a virological level”
Last November, the Senate office approved the creation of a commission of inquiry to “take stock of the extent of irregular practices” surrounding bottled water. The senator from Oise Alexandre Ouizille (PS) was appointed rapporteur, after requesting the opening of this commission of inquiry.
In an interview with Public SenateAlexandre Ouizille explains that “even before this information came out, we (the commission of inquiry, Editor’s note) had already planned to carry out an inspection on the Perrier site in Vergèze”. “This reassures us of the need to proceed.”
Still in this interview, the senator deplores that “despite the transformation plan initiated by Nestlé Waters in 2021 and validated on the sly by the government, health risks exist, particularly on the virological level”.
Facing the Public Senate, he insisted on the desire of parliamentarians to hear “industrialists, in particular those responsible for Nestlé Waters, but also the supervisory authorities and members of the government of the time. We want to go all the way back to the end of the decision-making chain.” “And if for that we have to go to the Prime Minister at the time, Élisabeth Borne, then we will go to the Prime Minister.”
