2023-11-20 20:02:52
Alain Maron, Vivaqua and Bruxelles Environnement held a key meeting on PFAS in Brussels water, an issue that has shaken the country for several weeks.
As the ministry announced at the end of last week, a crucial technical meeting took place Monday followingnoon, involving Vivaqua, Brussels Environment and Brussels Minister of the Environment Alain Maron (Ecolo).
This meeting, focused on the worrying question of the presence of PFAS in the water distributed in Brussels, was confirmed by the minister’s office early in the evening. It follows the intervention of the minister before the regional Parliament, following that of Walloon Minister Céline Tellierto clarify the situation regarding PFAS in Brussels water.
“Access to quality drinking water is a fundamental right and protecting the health of Brussels residents is a priority for the minister and water operators.”
During this consultation, the minister’s office and the two entities responsible for water management carried out an in-depth examination of the quality of the water distributed in the Belgian capital. The minister’s office wanted to reassure the population, stressing that the water situation in Brussels is “completely reassuring”.
Last Saturday, Alain Maron revealed before the Walloon Parliament that since June 2022, Vivaqua has carried out checks on twenty PFASwith results always inferior to the future European standard of 100 ng/l, which has therefore never been exceeded in Brussels. The alert threshold of 30 nanograms per liter that the Brussels Region intends to establish has never been reached either.
The meeting served as an initial platform to begin discussions on the application of this European standard, which will be implemented in Brussels from 2024, before its application in the European Union in 2026.
However, regional deputy Christophe De Beukelaer (Les Engagés) discovered that the levels of four dangerous PFAS in the Rhode reservoir, managed by Vivaqua, exceed the standards and indicative thresholds established in Denmark (2 ng/l) and in Flanders (4 ng/l). Between October 2021 and October 2022, the average concentration of these PFAS reached 6.9 ng/l. But this reservoir supplies water to more than half of the taps in Brussels.
Application of the European standard
The meeting served as an initial platform for start discussions on the application of this European standardwhich will be implemented in Brussels from 2024, before its application in the European Union in 2026. This approach also aims to define future vigilance thresholds or intermediate objectives, in a context where Brussels has not yet transposed the European directive on the quality of drinking water into its regional lawa process delayed by an inappropriate initial decision by the government.
This consultation should extend to other Regions. “Access to quality drinking water is a fundamental right and protecting the health of Brussels residents is a priority for the minister and water operators,” declared Minister Maron’s office in a communication sent to the Belga agency.
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