“La Voulzie à Paris” : étude des oppositions à la dérivation des sources de la Voulzie à partir des discours de la presse écrite (1885–1929)

Abstract

Many large cities rely on remote water resources for their drinking water supply. Projects to transfer water to urban centers have been contested in the past and are still a socio-political issue today. Half of the volume of drinking water distributed in Paris comes from groundwater collected in the Seine watershed since the end of the 19th century. This paper examines the oppositions to the project to divert the Voulzie River springs (department of Seine-et-Marne) between 1885 and 1929. It studies the discourses of the print media using a historical geography approach. The method is based on the content analysis of 367 press articles. First, it highlights the modalities of the media coverage of the water supply project. Then, it enables the identification of the actors and the characteristics of the discourses opposed to the diversion of springs. The results underline the importance of political power relations and geographical divides. They show that the protests did not focus solely on the economic or landscape impacts of water diversions. They called into question the city’s entire water supply system. This article proposes a new approach to the history of Paris’ water supply by giving greater importance to the territories on which water is collected. Furthermore, it sheds light on the historical underpinnings of current discourses on water diversions.

Keywords

• textual analysis
• media
• Paris
• historical geography
• discourse
• contestation