"I'm going to be able to make you drink some Nonette," Erwan smiles, his look mischievous as he clutches a water purifier in his hands.
After placing water from the river bordering his shared garden in Senlis (Oise) in a bucket, the forty-year-old presses the small plastic filter pump several times.
In a few seconds, the soft, slightly greenish water rises through the filtration system and flows through a small pipe directly into a glass.
"And here is the water from your local river, perfectly clean for consumption", exclaims Erwan, raising the container containing this time, perfectly clear water.
The salesperson purchased this filter recently, “just in case” to have drinking water “everywhere and all the time”.
The purifier works for fresh water: rain, rivers, ponds, wells... For domestic use, withdrawals of less than 1,000m3 per year are authorized.
However, it is necessary to find out from your municipality about the regulations in force, especially in times of drought.
Read also“A time bomb”: how a billion m3 of drinking water is lost each year in France
His purifier, Erwan got it from Fonto de Vivo.
Since the drought this summer, this Nantes start-up has found itself overwhelmed with requests from French individuals.
“We are stunned,” reacts David Monnier, its co-founder.
Because originally, this former humanitarian worker had developed this product for NGOs to meet drinking water needs in emergency situations in countries that are in dire need of it.
But since this summer, its purifiers have been selling like hot cakes to individuals.
Faced with the scale of the requests, the company even had to open its online store.
By filtering viruses and bacteria using a mechanical pumping system, this purifier makes fresh water (river, lake, rain, etc.) fit for consumption... "But does not make the water truly drinkable", warns Fabienne Lagarde , specialist in environmental chemistry.
"In water qualified as drinking in France, we also monitor that chemical pollutants, which may be present in the water of a river for example, are eliminated during treatment", specifies the academic, who recommends occasional use. water purified by the product.