Employees at the Vergèze plant in southern France, which produces bottles for the Perrier and Maison Perrier brands, are worried about the future of the site due to deteriorating water quality. An urgent meeting of the social and economic committee (CSE) of Nestlé Waters Sud, the operating company, was held on Thursday, June 13, after an alert process was triggered at the end of May. This procedure enables staff representatives to request explanations from management regarding the company's operations and ask them if they are "aware of circumstances likely to have a worrying impact on [its] economic situation."
Questions and concerns arose. According to information gathered by Radio France and Le Monde, the operations of two of the seven wells used to produce the famous sparkling water were recently suspended due to disinfection procedures. On May 30, eight inspectors from the Occitanie regional health agency and the departmental directorate for population protection carried out an inspection of the site in the presence of Nestlé Waters' lawyers. Did this visit lead to these disinfection measures? The Directorate General for Health was unable to answer our questions on June 13. According to Nestlé, this is merely a "regular maintenance operation, in line with [its] quality management protocols."
These two suspensions were in addition to that of another water catchment, ordered on April 19 by the Gard region's prefect, due to a "contamination incident (...) lasting several days, caused by germs indicative of contamination of fecal origin." Nestlé Waters then had to destroy several hundred thousand bottles of Perrier.
In a communication to Radio France and Le Monde, the company claimed to have had to destroy two million bottles, but sources close to the health authorities asserted that it was, in fact, almost three million bottles that were affected. This figure is now confirmed "after inventory," by Nestlé Waters. The prefectural order said that these bottles, which had not been put on the market, could "pose a health risk to consumers."
According to the operator, this was merely a one-time situation, caused by heavy rainfall in mid-March. However, according to our information, the well in question is still shut down. With the disinfection operations launched on two other wells, Nestlé Waters no longer has the volumes of natural mineral water needed to produce the 1-liter green Perrier plastic bottles. According to our information, sales of these bottles have been suspended until the end of the summer.
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