Months into an historic drought on the Indian Ocean islands of Mayotte, France is ramping up its distribution of bottled water. From Monday everyone on the archipelago – no longer just its most vulnerable residents – will be entitled to a one-litre bottle per day, in a vast operation that environmental campaigners are warning will generate millions of tonnes of plastic waste.
Soldiers and firefighters are being deployed to hand out some 330,000 litres of bottled water per day on Mayotte, which is in the grip of its worst drought this century.
