From then on, the college contacted the Walloon Minister of Health Yves Coppieters and the Minister of Agriculture Anne-Catherine Dalcq to hear their opinions and possibly put in place an action plan. The answer came a few days ago: “The potability of the water distributed in your municipality is not affected by the results you have communicated to us”replied Minister Coppieters.
While Minister Dalcq invited elected officials to contact David Clarinval. “The legislation relating to the use of pesticides falls under federal jurisdiction, I inform you that I have relayed your request”she writes, adding that she also contacted the Walloon agricultural research center. “We want to avoid being alarmist, the water is the same as yesterday. We are actually waiting for the European standard to know if we are correct because there we are basing ourselves on a supposed standard, that’s the difficulty”said the mayor again.
Bouchat asks to dig deeper
Since the problems linked to eternal pollutants are largely linked to pesticides used in agriculture, the Ecolo opposition councilor, François Bouchat (the list is now called Merci) spoke to the council. He specifies that limitations had to take place well in advance to limit the presence of these dangerous substances and that it is not too late to take them again today.
For him, the response from Minister Yves Coppieters must also be examined, given that the reference levels had indeed been exceeded. “There is, I find, a failure, in not having communicated this information earlier, I hope that it was not linked to the electoral calendar”he further specifies. “We are not responsible for the distribution network, and we were waiting for answers from the ministers”replies Mayor Frédéric Deville.
Once a year, the SWDE and the AIEC undertake to communicate the concentration of TFA to citizens. The appropriate measures to be taken will be the responsibility of the next municipal college which will take office on December 2 at 7 p.m.
