Waterstories.eu: the dark side of the European bottled water industry

Waterstories.eu is a cross-border multimedia project about the European bottled water industry. It is initiated by We Report, an European network of investigative journalists.

Eight members of the network from four different countries are working on concrete cases in France, Germany and Italy, where most of Europe's bottled water is produced and consumed. The first investigation results yield concrete evidence on cases of conflicts of interest, major environmental damage such as drying out of acquifiers or polluted rivers, tax evasion, greenwashing, and much more.

Danone

The first piece of Waterstories describes the concrete case of Danone in Volvic (France). French bottled water company Danone publically claims to "take only as much resources as mother nature allows us". Research from We Report journalists for Mediapart (France) and DIE ZEIT (Germany) shows that this isn't true, at least when it comes to the case of central French town of Volvic where million of water bottles are produced every day.

According to public data, the multinational company's local consumption has been almost doubling during the last ten years. Nowadays, the enterprise consumes ten times more than the local population. Worse, confidential reports obtained by We Report now show that Danone even has been discretely increasing their withdrawals during the summer periods whilst others such as citizens or farmers had to face heavy restrictions. According to the documents, Danone and the legislators have been aware of the negative impact caused by this excessive consumption, on the local tap water reserve as well as on rivers, for years, without informing the public. Whereas Danone now publicly confirmed most of those facts, the local administration has been announcing a public debate on the equal redistribution on water resources in Volvic.

Nestlé recognises its responsibility and promises progress after 2nd part of Waterstories.eu's investigation

In the Vosges, repeated droughts amplify the battle for water between Nestlé and other consumers of drinking water. Under its ecological varnish, the Swiss multinational is suspected of concealing illegal dumping of plastic, at the risk of polluting the water table which fills its water bottles stamped Vittel, Contrex and Hépar.

After this 2nd part of Waterstories.eu’s investigation into the illegal dumping grounds of Nestlé Waters in Vittel, the mineral water giant is forced to play transparency. In Vosges Matin its management admits their responsibility for nine illegal landfills and announces a draft action plan to remove its waste.

Nestlé's production manager, David Vivier, first admitted that nine landfills are in the territory. Five are open-air landfills for which "the solution would be quick to implement to clean them up". Four are buried sites, in They-sous-Montfort, Saint-Ouen-lès-Parey, Contrexéville and Crainvilliers, on which vegetation has grown back.

(The ARTE documentary about the bottled water industry has been nominated for the Deutsch-Französischer Journalistenpreis / Prix Franco-Allemand du Journalisme (DFJP.eu) )

© Alberto Campi/We Report