“There is good news and bad news.” On the island of Sein, the intervention of a Veolia technician in early February caused trouble. Called to the rescue to identify a mysterious problem of leaks on the drinking water network, the company studied for two days all the installations of this rock located off the Pointe du Raz (Finistère). Here, the inhabitants drink seawater all year round, made drinkable by two reverse osmosis units. Totally dependent on its two desalination devices, the island of Sein has been worried for two years about very significant leaks on its network. A subject that upsets the municipality because the treatment of water here is very expensive and that it is all the more precious as it can be rare.
After Veolia’s visit, the report was eagerly awaited by elected officials, who feared that the pipe network would be destroyed by forty years spent underground. The verdict, however, is quite different. According to the technician, the Sein network would be in perfect working order. That’s for the good news. The bad news is that these repeated leaks are linked to malicious acts. This suggests that one of the 150 inhabitants likes to open the floodgates from time to time. A sabotage? But from whom? And why ? Mystery.
“Everyone wonders who it could be”
Since receiving the report from Veolia, the mayor of the island of Sein has been a bit confused. ” I did not expect that. It’s the big bustle on the island. We are barely 150 here in winter. So everything is known. Everyone is wondering who it could be and why they are doing this to us, ”explains Mayor Didier Fouquet. Contacted, the company Veolia confirms that their “leak hunter” has passed the 1st and 2nd of February to study the network. “Our agent noted after investigation that there is no leak on the rainwater supply network of the island of Sein, which suggests that the problem at the origin is human”, specifies Veolia. .
The conclusion is however clear. Before the announcement of the company’s arrival on the island, the municipal agent assigned to water management regularly saw the water meter running for no reason. “We were talking about leaks of 50 m³ of water per day, it’s huge if we relate it to the consumption of the island”, notes the one who was elected mayor in 2020. This is almost twice as much as the consumption of the whole island in winter. A major problem because these leaks of 50,000 liters had been occurring several times a month for about two years, weighing down the finances of the municipality. Not connected to the mainland, the island largely subsidizes the production of drinking water to prevent it from costing the inhabitants too much. Despite these efforts, the cubic meter of drinking water is charged 7.55 euros in Sénans, when the average in mainland France barely exceeds two euros. But who could then “have fun” wasting it? When questioned, an inhabitant of the island does not believe it. “I would be surprised if it was voluntary. We have too much respect for water here”. And yet…
The leaks have disappeared since the arrival of Veolia
Each house being equipped with a meter, malicious acts would undoubtedly be located upstream. Except that even before the arrival of Veolia, the leakage problem disappeared. “It stopped as soon as we announced that technicians were coming. Since then, it’s settled, it’s when a great mystery! asks the mayor. Didier Fouquet, however, sweeps away any desire to carry out the investigation to find the culprit. “I’m not going to do Colombo! I don’t blame anyone and I don’t blame anyone. I just want to understand. Does anyone blame us? “. In the past, it has happened that occasional residents forget to close the valves, but the problem was quickly identified.
To limit the risk of waste, the municipality plans to install valves “by district” in order to reduce the impact of a possible leak. Such a system would also put pressure on the perpetrator(s) of these malicious acts.