French authorities are warning hikers not to drink water from mountain streams, after a number of tourists fell ill and had to be airlifted to hospital.
Two groups of hikers totalling nine people who had drunk water from streams and lakes in the Pyrenees were flown to hospital in Tarbes recently suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea, the regional newspaper Sud Ouest reported in late July. Two more hikers had been affected earlier.
Emergencies like these are by no means rare, said Sabastien Abbadie, head of the local mountain rescue service, on broadcaster Ici. "We have rescue operations every day," he said.
In 2025, there had been more than 50 emergencies following the drinking of mountain water, he said. "You should not drink this water, to avoid operations like these," he said.
Even if the water in mountain streams appears clear and fresh, it is not necessarily drinkable and can cause serious health problems, since both animal faeces and human waste can end up in the water, the prefecture of Hautes-Pyrénées says.
Instead, hikers should use safe water sources such as tap water or bottled water.
Rescue workers are also grappling with a new phenomenon: filter bottles, which are growing in popularity. These are now being used by a number of tourists as the primary solution for water supply during a hike, with no water reserves being carried.
Local officials say, however, that using filter bottles to drink water from mountain streams or rivers is not sufficient to purify water taken from nature.
Tourists should have half a litre of drinking water available for every hour of a hike. To refill their bottles, they could use the water supply at mountain huts.
The French hiking association also warned against drinking water from natural sources due to possible microbiological contamination. Filter bottles should only be used in emergencies, it said. – dpa
