Bettembourg mayor Laurent Zeimet (CSV) has reiterated his opposition to plans by Greek yoghurt company Fage to build a production plant in an industrial zone just outside the town. The city council’s main concern is the 2,500m3 of water that the plant will require for its daily operation--that is twice as much as the private households of Bettembourg consume each day.

Zeimet told RTL’s François Aulner that such high water consumption was not consistent with objectives to better manage the country’s drinking water supply. “We would be quite happy to be convinced otherwise,” Zeimet said. The mayor says that technology is available that could reduce the plant’s water consumption. He is optimistic that the negative opinions submitted during a public consultation should leave the government with no other option but to refuse planning permission to Fage, which has already purchased the land where it plans to build its factory.

However, Dudelange mayor Dan Biancalana (LSAP), has said that although he would not be unhappy if the factory did create 100 jobs for the region there was still much work to do in terms of water consumption and waste water management. Biancalana is also concerned at the amount of extra heavy goods traffic that will be generated when the factory is up and running and producing 80,000 tonnes of Greek yoghurt per year.

In addition, the communes that make up the upper Alzette river basin contract, which includes Bettembourg as well as Esch-sur-Alzette, Kayl, Mondercange, Roeser, Sanem, and Schifflange, have expressed concern that waste water from the factory--expected to be as much as 3,100m3 per day--will be too much for the river to absorb even after filtration. The organisation’s president, Schifflange mayor Paul Weimerskirch (CSV), said that the discharge “has the potential to choke the Alzette” and would compromise efforts currently underway to restore the river to environmentally sustainable levels by 2027.

Minister of the economy Franz Fayot (LSAP) suggested that the state might contribute to the financing of a 1km long drainage channel between the factory and the river Alzette. But Fayot, speaking on radio 100,7, also has said that Fage was not being treated any differently to other firms seeking to build production facilities in the grand duchy.