2023-11-15 20:43:07
“Of course, I warned my Walloon and Brussels colleagues for a very specific reason: the lack of data from Brussels and Wallonia has always been a “black box” for us.. Questioned this Wednesday in the Flemish Parliament, the Minister of the Environment, N-VA Zuhal Demir strongly criticized the management of PFAS contamination in Walloon drinking water.
Zuhal Démir mentioned the various letters that his office sent to his Walloon and Brussels counterparts: “To say now that we knew nothing doesn’t hold water!“, she will insist several times. In January 2023, the Flemish minister had alerted Céline Tellier, Alain Maron and Christie Morreale of problems with drinking water in Halle, distributed by Vivaqua. She mentioned the non-respect of the values of EFSA reference, and exceedances of PFAS levels, in areas where Flanders imports drinking water.
What did the Flemish minister do to warn residents? “I hear in the Walloon Parliament that I didn’t say anything to the residents, it’s false“, replies Zuhal Démir to the Flemish deputies. On January 27, 2023, De Watergroep (the Flemish network manager) made a communication, notably on its website. ” Then, consultations were started with Vivaqua and continued in the intra-Belgian working group“. Comments which contradict what Céline Tellier said, explaining that no follow-up on the Flemish side had been made following the collaboration proposals.
Zuhal Demir then strongly attacked Walloon management of the PFAS file. “I think it was quite easy for our environmental colleagues to assume that PFAS was not a problem in French-speaking Belgium because there were no PFAS producers in that region. Flemish studies have shown that this is not necessary for there to be PFAS contamination.”
Flanders was singled out in 2021 following the discovery of PFAS contamination linked to the activity of a 3M factory in Zwijndrecht, in the Antwerp region. “What the Walloons have in their water is 30 times higher than what we discovered in Flanders. And this comes to teach lessons ! “, quips the nationalist minister.
And Zuhal Demir concluded his speech at the podium: “What we do ourselves in Flanders, we do better. In this case we prove it “
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