2021.05.27 12:28World eye

ボルヴィック水源、くみ過ぎで枯渇の危機か 仏

【ボルヴィックAFP=時事】フランス中部ボルヴィックを囲む緑豊かな火山性丘陵は長らく、世界的に有名なミネラルウオーターの水源地となってきた。しかし、地元住民や地質学者は、過剰な採水により、地域一帯が危険にさらされていると警鐘を鳴らしている。(写真は生家の前に立つピエール・グロドクールさん)
 「かつては水が膝の高さまであり、水車2基を回していた」。ボルヴィック近郊の村の生家前の流れを指さしながら、ピエール・グロドクールさん(69)はこう話す。水車はなくなり、最近では川が干上がっていることも多いという。
 オーベルニュ地域圏に位置するグロドクールさんの村のすぐ近くには、仏食品・飲料大手ダノンが所有するミネラルウオーター「ボルヴィック」の巨大なボトリング工場がある。
 仏政府は2014年以降、ダノンに年間280万立方メートル、1リットルボトルで換算すると28億本分の採水を許可している。これは、毎秒89リットル近くの水をくみ出していることになる。
 工場近くの養魚場にはボルヴィックの源泉が湧き出ているが、いまでは数か月間、全く水が出ないこともある。
 地質学者のロベール・デュラン氏はAFPに対し、ボルヴィックの源泉の平均流量は、1927年の毎秒470リットルから毎秒50リットルまで落ち込んだと語った。
 水不足により木々に覆われた丘陵の湿度が下がっており、地域の生物多様性に影響が出ている。
 オーベルニュ地域圏クレルモンフェランにあるフランス国立科学研究センター(CNRS)の専門家、クリスティアン・アンブラール氏は、「砂漠化の始まりと言える」と指摘する。
 農業を営む男性は、ボルヴィック周辺の水は不足しており、もはやかんがいには使えないと話す。「この辺りではここ数年、植物や野菜が全く育たない」
 ダノンのボトリング工場長のジェローム・グロ氏は、工場が水をくみ尽くして干上がらせているとの批判に対し、ダノンは水源の保護に多額の投資をしていると反論した。
 一方、専門家らは、ボルヴィックの工場は地下100メートルから水をくみ上げていると指摘。ここ数年の降雨量は安定しており、水源の枯渇は天候のせいではないとしている。
 地元環境保護グループに所属する地質学者は「バスタブの底から水をくみ上げて空にしているようなものだ」と批判した。【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2021/05/27-12:28)
2021.05.27 12:28World eye

Too thirsty? France's Volvic blamed as streams run dry


The lush volcanic hills surrounding Volvic in central France have long been a source of mineral water prized worldwide, but locals and geologists warn that too much is now being pumped out, putting the entire region at risk.
We used to have water up to our knees and the stream could turn two mills, said Pierre Grodecoeur, 69, pointing out the flow outside the house where he was born in Les Moulins Blancs.
The mills are long gone, Grodecoeur said, and these days the stream bed is often dry.
His village in the Auvergne region is just down the road from the hulking Volvic bottling plant owned by French food and beverage giant Danone.
Since 2014, the government has allowed Danone to bottle up to 2.8 million cubic metres a year -- or 2.8 billion one-litre bottles.
That translates into an extraction of nearly 89 litres per second from the Volvic water table, compared with just 15.6 litres when bottling operations first began in 1965.
But at the nearby fish hatchery of Saint-Genest-l'Enfant, a registered landmark dating from the 17th century where the Volvic source naturally emerges, there are now some months when no water flows at all.
The owner, Edouard de Feligonde, had to shut down the fishery a few years ago after duckweed formed slick green films over basins that became stagnant for lack of current.
Danone is destroying a historical monument so that it can send its bits of plastic to the other side of the world, said Feligonde, who is waging a legal battle against the multinational with the lawyer and former environment minister Corinne Lepage.
- 'Desertification' -
Robert Durand, a geologist, told AFP that the average flow rate at the Volvic source had fallen to 50 litres per second, far below the 470 litres per second measured in 1927.
Water shortages are already impacting the region's biodiversity by reducing the natural humidity of the forested hills.
It can be described as the beginning of a desertification, said Christian Amblard, an expert with France's CNRS research institute in Clermont-Ferrand, the historic capital of Auvergne.
He cited declines in black alder trees and the siskin songbirds that nest in them, and in ash trees and golden orioles.
Only the hand of man and Volvic are responsible, he said.
Laurent Campos-Hugueney, a farmer and member of the Water is a Public Good collective, said streams around Volvic no longer flow strongly enough to support irrigation.
There hasn't been any plant or vegetable operations in the area for several years, he said.
But Jerome Gros, director at the Volvic bottling site, disputed the claim that his operations were sucking the waterbed dry and said Danone was investing heavily in protecting the source.
We have saved 380 million litres between 2017 and 2020 even as sales remained stable, Gros told AFP.
In 2014, for example, Volvic needed to pump out two litres to fill a one-litre bottle, with the excess used for sterilising and rinsing equipment.
Today we're down to just 1.4 litres for every litre bottled, he said.
- 'Shooting itself in the foot' -
Critics are not convinced, noting that Volvic pumps up water from up to 100 metres deep, and that stream depletions cannot be ascribed to the weather since rainfall has remained steady over the past years.
It's like you're emptying a bathtub from the bottom, said Francois-Dominique de Larouziere, a geologist who is member of the local Preva environmental preservation group.
Authorities have also allowed Volvic to spread its volume allotment over the entire year, meaning it can pump more in summer when demand spikes, leaving everyone else high and dry.
The government's top official for the region, Philippe Chopin, told a parliamentary commission in April that environmental conditions, in particular drought, caused a drop in the aquifer that we do not believe can be blamed on Volvic's extractions.
His assertions were rejected by many in Volvic, where the issuance of building permits was suspended last August because of the risk of drinking water shortages -- though the mayor denied any proof that Volvic's operations were the cause.
How can you tell people they can't water three tomato plants in the middle of summer, when they see full trucks leaving this factory? De Larouziere said.
Danone is shooting itself in the foot, but when the faucet stops running, it's going to be painful.

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