This time it is not the scientists or the associations that are warning, but the general inspections of three ministries. In a joint report of almost 600 pages, kept confidential and revealed on Friday, November 15 by online media ContextInspectors attached to the ministries of agriculture, health and ecological transition denounce the poor state of French water resources and the general deterioration of the quality of drinking water, due to widespread contamination by pesticides and their degradation products (or “metabolites”). ).
For at least ten million French people – and undoubtedly many more – the quality of tap water is no longer guaranteed, simply because of five substances. Many others have not yet been investigated. “Without ambitious and specific preventive measures, the recovery of water quality is illusory,” notify the inspectors.
The General Inspection of Social Affairs, the General Inspection of the Environment and Sustainable Development and the General Council of Food, Agriculture and Rural Environment point out without hesitation “the general failure to preserve the quality of water resources with respect to pesticides”.
Abandonment of 12,500 drinking water collections
Between 1980 and 2019, 12,500 drinking water collections were abandoned. Initially, these closures were mainly due to the abandonment of certain equipment, or only occasional contamination, but “Diffuse contamination is now the main reason for the closure”the report states.
France currently only has 33,000 basins, the mission points out: “These abandonment of basins due to quality problems reduce the water resources available for the supply of drinking water, which can cause situations of tension, especially in the summer period. » However, with warming and the depletion of certain resources, keeping basins in service becomes a crucial issue, inspectors add.
The situation is probably more worrying than that described in the report, since many metabolites – in particular fluorinated residues such as trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a “perennial pollutant” – are not yet systematically monitored.
The regulatory gaps pointed out by the inspectors are numerous. Lack of harmonized monitoring of pesticides and their metabolites at the national level, vague community framework, tangle of responsibilities between water agencies, regional health agencies, distributors and communities, lack of consideration of all metabolites of each pesticide at the time of its marketing, lack of evaluation of the health effects of pesticide mixtures, etc.
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