Excess residues of the fungicide chlorothalonil have been identified in the tap water of at least 31 municipalities in French-speaking Switzerland, reveals a participatory survey by the RTS in collaboration with the FRC. This also highlights information that is not always transparent and unequal depending on the municipalities.
The RTS and the French-speaking Consumer Federation (FRC) contacted all French-speaking municipalities to find out the exposure of drinking water to micropollutants.
The data collected made it possible to identify 31 municipalities in which tap water exceeded the standard of 0.1 microgram per liter for a residue of the fungicide chlorothalonil. These are mainly Vaud and Friborg municipalities, notably the towns of Yverdon-les-Bains, Payerne or Estavayer and a good part of the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel.
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This result is, however, not exhaustive. Because the municipalities which have not provided information and which would also exceed this rate do not appear on our map. No current list summarizing all the data for the same canton is in fact available from the cantonal services, the latter being bound by a duty of discretion. Information on water quality can therefore only be obtained from the municipalities concerned, which do not all monitor the same substances and communicate their results in sometimes very different ways, some in very detailed form, others more. evasive.
>> Listen to the special broadcast of We’re talking about it at the Lutry pumping station:
Water remains consumable
Questioned, the 31 municipalities concerned insist on reminding that water remains consumable, despite these excesses. “We can drink this water without risk to health,” confirms Patrick Edder, Geneva cantonal chemist, guest on Tuesday in the program “On en parole”. “In general, for pesticide residues, we have set values which are not toxicological values, but the lowest possible values, because we simply do not want them in our environment. If we had to put toxicological values, in certain cases, we would accept much higher concentrations.”
We have the impression that there is a sort of law of silence, that the municipalities are bothered, even though it is a right for every citizen to know the quality of the water.
But chlorothalonil is not the only substance frequently found in the network by water distributors. TFA, trifluoroacetic acid, is also very present and in fairly large quantities in the tap water of French-speaking Switzerland. The toxicological risk of this PFAS, an eternal pollutant, is currently being evaluated by various authorities. “It’s a molecule that we must monitor. There is uncertainty,” indicates Patrick Edder.
>> Also read about the TFA: TFA, an often ignored pollutant in tap water
Other substances, such as chloridazone, atrazine, iomeprol or metformin, an antidiabetic, appear several times in the readings. “These are medicines, so it is not necessarily linked to agriculture. It is linked to our way of life,” recalls Nathalie Chèvre, ecotoxicologist at the University of Lausanne. “Just sunscreen, for example, we will find some in the lake. Because we put it on the skin, we then wash and it ends up in the water. So, I would say: really try to use the most natural substances possible and also limit their use,” she advises.
Lack of information on water quality
The part of the investigation carried out by “A Bon Entendeur” also reveals significant gaps in access to information. Of the more than 600 municipalities contacted, i.e. all French-speaking municipalities, 60% did not provide any information relating to the presence or absence of micropollutants in their water. “It shocks and it offends,” comments Michel Matter, a doctor who was a member of the committee of the “For Clean Drinking Water” initiative. “We have the impression that there is a sort of law of silence, that the municipalities are bothered, even though it is a right for every citizen to know the quality of the water.”
“It shocks and it offends,” comments Michel Matter in the show “A Bon Entendeur”. For the doctor, who was a member of the committee of the “For clean drinking water” initiative, “we have the impression that there is a sort of law of silence, that the municipalities are bothered, whereas it is a right, for every citizen, to know the quality of water.”
>> Also read: Limited chlorothalonil residues in water: municipalities in trouble
Does the quality of information depend on the size of the municipalities and the means at their disposal? This is not the opinion of Rebecca Eggenberger, food manager at the FRC: “We tried to find out if there was a common denominator between these distributors who are capable of providing this information. We did not find any There are large towns and small villages of 1,200 inhabitants which really provide reliable information and which even explain the excesses.”
>> Details in Isabelle Fiaux’s Forum on PFAS in water:
Web text: Philippe Girard, François Egger, Maeva Liebling, Méribé Estermann, Linda Bourget
Radio subject: Bastien von Wyss, Mathieu Truffer, Isabelle Fiaux
TV subject: François Egger, Maeva Liebling, Méribé Estermann, Linda Bourget
