Access to water: The owner of a fish farm and three associations are taking legal action against "excessive" withdrawals of Volvic water authorized by the State

Already embroiled in the "Perrier affair," the French government is suspected of having granted "excessive" water withdrawal permits to Volvic, a subsidiary of the French food giant Danone. The administrative court in Clermont-Ferrand is examining, this Friday, July 4, the appeal of Édouard de Féligonde, owner of a fish farm listed as a historic monument, who accuses the authorities of being responsible for the drying up of his sources.

The Puy-de-Dôme resident claims that this drying up is linked to the Danone group's withdrawals for its Volvic mineral water bottling plant . Since 2017, for several months each year, the springs located downstream from their drilling have run dry, and the waterless basins have collapsed, forcing them to cease operations.

Withdrawal permits are issued by the prefect, amounting to 2.389 million cubic meters per year. Volvic's withdrawals are just below this threshold. After an initial 10% reduction in 2022, the Puy-de-Dôme prefecture implemented a further 5% reduction in the annual permit at the end of April. But for Édouard de Féligonde, it is clear that the permits "are adjusted based on what Danone pumps ."

"It's an explosive situation in the short term, since water will no longer flow to the sources (...) by 2036 ," he said in a letter sent to the Senate inquiry committee on the practices of bottled water manufacturers. "This will therefore mean a drying up of fish farming, but also of 3,600 hectares of land downstream from my home." Three associations specializing in environmental protection – Preva, Frane and FNE63 – filed an appeal with the same court on Friday, June 27, to denounce the authorizations for "excessive" water withdrawals.

Three years after highlighting the state's "failures," the public prosecutor is expected to ask the court to reject the request of Édouard de Féligonde, who is claiming 32 million euros from the state, according to a document consulted by Agence France Presse (AFP). The public prosecutor remains, however, a magistrate who advises the administrative courts, which may or may not follow his instructions.

At a first hearing in 2022, the State had argued that the damage resulted from "a climatic factor, in this case a drought phenomenon" . The court then requested two new expert reports in order to rule: one in hydrogeology to "assess the flow of the springs and its evolution" , the other financial to quantify the damage linked to the loss of operation and the deterioration of the fish farm. Questioned by the AFP, the Danone group indicated that it did not "comment on elements of ongoing cases" . However, it claims to have reduced its "withdrawals from Volvic by -15% between 2017 and 2024" and to have committed to doing so further in the event of a drought alert.