Paris hits back at eau minérale as adverts pour scorn on its water

The Times

By Charles Bremner in Paris

The makers of France’s most popular mineral water have angered the Government, the Paris council and Green groups with a campaign implying that the capital’s tap water is undrinkable and polluted.
City officials, who are proud of the quality of their eau du robinet, have hit back, saying that much of Cristaline, the bottled water, comes from the same underground source that supplies an industrial port city.
Behind the feud lie declining sales in a saturated market for mineral water, which the French still drink in greater volumes than the tap version. Cristaline, a low-cost eau minérale, has covered Paris with posters showing an open lavatory with a red cross and the tagline: “I do not drink water that I use.”

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