An interministerial inspection report highlights the “global failure” in preserving the quality of water intended for consumption as regards pesticidesand recommends banning “as a matter of urgency of their use in the most polluted groundwater catchment areas. The report, produced by the inspectorates of the Ministries of Health, Ecological Transition and Agriculture, is dated June 2024 and was revealed on Thursday by online media Contexte.
The inspections were tasked with analyzing “the management of non-compliances of phytosanitary substances (pesticides, NDLR) and their metabolites (molecules derived from the degradation of pesticides and potentially toxic, NDLR)”. in water intended for human consumption. The report notes “the overall failure to preserve the quality of water resources as regards pesticides, despite some localized progress, which is often very slow”..
He proposes “to institute a zone subject to government constraint”. and implementation, “by order, d’“an action program with objectives and result indicators for all catchment areas where quality limits for pesticides and their metabolites are exceeded or close to being exceeded”.. “In case of non-achievement of quality objectives”. at the end of this first phase, the report recommends a new decree, which will put in place, “without delay, a program of compulsory measures to restrict or even ban the use of plant protection products in these areas”..
A measure “accompanied by compensatory indemnities for the farmers concerned”.. “Restoring the quality of water intended for human consumption requires ambitious preventive measures to be implemented as a matter of urgency.”say the inspectors. These measures include a ban on the use of pesticides in groundwater catchment areas. “containing substances that generate metabolites at risk of migrating into water in concentrations above the regulatory limit”., “increase the rate of the non-point source pollution charge”. and “broadening the base to include biocidal products”..
The national strategic plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “should reinforce support for the evolution of practices”.by “increasing the value of organic farming in water catchment areas”.. The same applies to water agency programs, which the inspection report calls on to increase “resources devoted to reducing pesticide pollution”.for example “conversion to organic farming or “low-input crops”..