It’s hard to justify… In a
context of drought and in a period when water is becoming scarce, can a company still remain free to drill as it sees fit in a water table? This is the whole question that has arisen for a few days in Grigny, in Essonne. Where for more than 30 years, a factory has been pumping all the liters it needs for its sodas. Established since 1986 22 km south of Paris, the Coca-Cola factory has been asked to stop tapping into the city’s groundwater to produce its drinks.
On Wednesday, the municipality announced that it had found a “agreement in principle” with the multinational. The mayor (PCF), Philippe Rio, assures him: “We are in the process of creating the technical conditions” connection of the plant to the city’s public water supply network. At the microphone of France Inter, he explains that this makes “We’ve been asking Coca-Cola to stop for ten years” to pump into the groundwater.
“A has-been and anachronistic situation”
At the origin of this practice, a contract signed by the American giant in 1986 when it established itself in the town. He is then authorized to directly exploit the aquifer. The site employs 266 people and produces bottles of Sprite, Coca-Cola and even Fanta. For that, factory pumps,
according to our colleagues from the newspaper “Le Parisien”, at least 730,000 m3 of water per year in the water table, the equivalent of almost 300 Olympic swimming pools. There “situation” is today “has been and anachronistic” points out Philippe Rio, for whom “we must protect the resource [en eau, ndlr] because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring”.
Coca-Cola was the only one to draw from this water table, Grigny being supplied with water by the Seinealso explains the mayor. “There was no conflict of use on the water table”he points out, adding that the city has no “feeding problem” in water. “We are even overcapacity” And “we can therefore provide them with water, they do not have to touch a natural environment, which must be preserved”insists Philippe Rio. “Perhaps in twenty years, we will have done well not to touch it”he pleads.
Coca claims to have “invested” to “limit” its water consumption
For its part, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the Western European bottler of the American soft drink giant, indicates in a press release that“at this stage”the agreement with the municipality is still “in discussion“. The company says it works “with the municipality on terms to buy city water for a part” of his drinks. CCEP also claims to have “invested” on the Grigny site “in order to limit as much as possible” their water consumption. Investments that have allowed, according to the company “savings of more than 50,000 m3 per year”. “Our drilling is subject to prefectural authorizations which are reviewed and issued regularly, and which may change depending on the water stress situation in the territory, by decision of the State services”also points out CCEP.
Water withdrawals “evolve regularly according to the activity without ever exceeding, at any time, the authorized limit of 1.2 million m³”, specifies the prefecture of Essonne. These withdrawals were authorized “after study of hydrogeological impacts”, she adds. According to the same source, the company has “the right to freely dispose of spring water and groundwater lying beneath it” of the land it owns, and “like all water abstractors, a fee is due to the Seine-Normandy Water Agency”.
A good change for Coke’s image
If the agreement ends up being successful and Coca-Cola connects to the city’s public network, the price per m3 remains to be negotiated, which will change the bill for the American giant. The direct exploitation of the aquifer was synonymous with water at very low cost. A necessary concession in the eyes of Hamza Bekkouche, employee of the Grigny factory, contacted by France Inter. “We are in a world-famous company that works a lot on its image and indeed it would cost a little more but in terms of image, it would find its way there.” It remains to know the cost of this connection. The estimate drawn up by the town of Grigny will mark the start of negotiations.
