More than 9 out of 10 consumers have access to drinking water that complies with regulations, nearly three million French people remain exposed to pollutants.
In France, drinking water is of good quality overall, but millions of citizens remain exposed to pollutants present in this vital commodity. This is the lesson that can be learned from the new interactive map on drinking water quality in France established by UFC-Que Choisir.
This shows that while nearly 96% of consumers can drink their water with confidence, nearly three million French people have water polluted in particular by pesticides, nitrates or lead.
Agriculture: first polluter
“This generally positive observation, with regard to distributed water, cannot mask the sad reality of massively polluted water resources requiring costly clean-up campaigns. If the consumption of tap water is to be encouraged, the public authorities must urgently strengthen the water policy, ”explain the authors in a press release from the association.
Based on the official results of the Ministry of Health, UFC-Que Choisir has combed through the distribution networks of the 36,600 municipalities in France, for all of the 50 regulatory criteria. The overall result is proving to be very satisfactory, since the water distributed to 95.6% of French consumers “hands down all of the regulatory limits throughout the year”.
On the other hand, for the 4.4% who drink polluted water, or 2.8 million French people, the picture is less optimistic. Agriculture remains the leading cause of water pollution with, in the lead, pesticides which are “by far the leading cause of non-compliance” (5% of distribution networks in 2271 municipalities).
These pesticides contaminate the water served to nearly two million mainly rural consumers in areas of intensive agriculture. “But they also affect the networks of certain cities”, explains the association, which quotes Tremblay in France (2 of the 3 distribution networks), Sens (3 of the 4 distribution networks), Lens, Tarbes, Auch…
Dilapidated facilities
Among the pollutants, then come nitrates (0.8% of contaminated networks in 370 municipalities) which pollute the water of nearly 200,000 consumers, particularly in Loiret, Seine et Marne, Yonne, Aube, the Marne, the Pas de Calais and the Somme.
Bacterial contamination due to faulty monitoring or the obsolescence of installations is the third most frequent pollution (0.7% of networks in 253 municipalities) and concerns around 200,000 consumers.
“If no city is affected, these contaminations are, on the other hand, more particularly encountered in small rural mountain towns: the Pyrenees, Massif Central and Alps”, we can still read.
Finally, across France, 3% of analyzes carried out in housing reveal the presence of lead, copper, nickel or vinyl chloride, released by dilapidated or corroded pipes. In the case of lead, these dwellings are more particularly located in the old centers: Nice, Toulon, Dijon, Avignon, Créteil, La Rochelle, Albi, St Brieuc… “But this pollution remains the most poorly measured because due to a very low number of samples (15 on average per city for the municipalities cited, over the period of two and a half years), these isolated analyzes do not allow to know the real exposure of consumers ”.
Optical illusion
The association also alerts on the appearance of regulatory compliance of water. Thus, concerning pipelines, “if many distribution networks escape the sanction of non-compliance in lead or vinyl chloride, it is often thanks to too few or even non-existent analyzes”.
Moreover, if 97% of the water is free from pesticides, “it is not because agriculture has amended its practices, but because the water undergoes costly pollution control treatments. However, 87% of this pollution control is financed by consumers against only 6% by farmers, in application of the inadmissible principle of “polluted pays”! », Denounces the association.
“Audit”
In order to encourage the French to favor tap water over bottled water, the UFC Que-Choose calls for a “in-depth reform of agricultural water policy, through a real implementation of the principle” polluter pays’ in the calculation of water charges, by means of an increase in the taxation of pesticides and nitrogenous fertilizers and by financial support for organic and integrated farming.
The association is also asking for a national audit of the toxic components of pipelines in order to estimate the level of exposure of consumers and, in the case of lead, assistance to individuals for the replacement of their pipelines.
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