• The Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture served formal notice on Lactalis for excessive water consumption last summer.

  • The main consumers of the department were asked to reduce their consumption by 25% due to the drought.

  • The dairy company promised an action plan which it sent to the prefecture, without anyone knowing the content.

The facts date back to the summer of 2022. A fiery summer marked by heat waves, drought and fires.

Everywhere in France, the prefectures have issued more or less severe decrees to impose restrictions and try to preserve water resources.

Brittany, although renowned for its capricious weather, was particularly affected by this episode of prolonged drought.

In Ille-et-Vilaine, the prefecture had imposed a 25% reduction in the water consumption of the main consumers of the department in order to limit breakage.

Because everywhere, the level of rivers, dams and lakes decreased dangerously.

To ensure that these restrictions were respected, the State carried out some checks.

And at Lactalis, not everything went well.

When state agents arrived at the site of the Vitré dairy company on August 23, they discovered that these restrictions had not been fully applied by the world's number one milk company.

In a decree published at the end of November and spotted by

Ouest-France

, the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine put Lactalis on notice for having consumed too much.

"It was found that consumption at the end of July 2022 did not comply with the restriction of a reduction in consumption of up to 25% of the average weekly consumption in 2021", explains the prefecture.

However, the extent of these excesses is not known.

Lactalis promises "a reduction action plan"

Contacted, the Lactalis company was not, as usual, very talkative.

"The Vitré dairy company sent the State services on December 8 a water saving study carried out by an outside expert accompanied by a reduction action plan", she reacted.

This analysis work had been requested by the prefecture, which regretted that the operator “was not able to present a diagnosis of water consumption accompanied by an action plan aimed at reducing it”.

On formal notice, the Lactalis company had fifteen days to comply, failing which it was liable to administrative sanctions provided for in the Environmental Code.

To our knowledge, the milk giant has so far not been worried.

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