Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

WATER

Burgundy villagers left without running water for two years

For the past two years residents of a village in Burgundy have been given industrial levels of bottled water by their town hall as they're no longer able to drink their own running water.

Published: 21 August 2018 10:33 CEST
Burgundy villagers left without running water for two years
Photo: AFP
It might sound unbelievable but this is how the villagers of Etais-la-Sauvin in Yonne have been living for almost two years. 
 
Located in north-central France the village's 840 inhabitants have been banned from using running water since October 2016 due to the pesticides used in local agriculture as well as the poor state of their pipes, according to Le Monde. 
 
This ban came in after the Regional Health Authority (ARS) revealed the presence of metazachlor, which is used to control a wide range of weeds in crops, ornamental trees and shrubs, in the water. 
 
This means that the residents of Etais-la-Sauvin are forced to wash, cook and drink the mineral water provided by the municipality, with 25,000 litres distributed in the village each month, according to La Croix.
 
Photo: François GOGLINS/Wikicommons
 
In fact, the patron of the only restaurant in the village has to dilute pastis in mineral water, make ice cubes with it and boil stew with it while the rest of inhabitants have had to rule out baths and instead only shower to waste less water, according to Le Monde. 
 
And it seems this pollution is inseparable from local agricultural activities, with one farmer in a neighbouring town singled out as having a significant impact on the water quality due to the size of his farm. 
 
But it isn't only farmers who are to blame.
 
The municipality of Etais-la-Sauvin, which, according to French press reports does not have the means to build a water treatment and purifcation unit, was forced to connect to a different one which already serves 27 towns and villages in the same area. 
 
However, this did not entirely solve the situation. 
 
Now, even though the water is fine to drink, the village's pipes are so old and damaged that large amounts of the clean water leaks out of them. 
 
Local newspaper Yonne Républicaine reports that as a result of this unusual situation, the village has earned the nickname 'bottled water central ' despite the fact that it isn't the only one in the area under a water ban.
 
Actually, the Regional Health Agency indicates that about fifteen municipalities are affected by water bans in the Yonne department.
 
But there may be a bright spot on the horizon for the villagers of Etais-la-Sauvin, with mayor, Claude Macchia, promising that new underground piping improvements will be carried out by 2019.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLLUTION

Greenpeace sounds alarm over Spain’s ‘poisonous mega farms’

The “uncontrolled” growth of industrial farming of livestock and poultry in Spain is causing water pollution from nitrates to soar, Greenpeace warned in a new report on Thursday.

Published: 15 October 2021 09:02 CEST
Greenpeace sounds alarm over Spain's 'poisonous mega farms'
Pollution from hundreds of intensive pig farms played a major role in the collapse of Murcia Mar Menor saltwater lagoon. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

The number of farm animals raised in Spain has jumped by more than a third since 2015 to around 560 million in 2020, it said in the report entitled “Mega farms, poison for rural Spain”.

This “excessive and uncontrolled expansion of industrial animal farming” has had a “serious impact on water pollution from nitrates”, it said.

Three-quarters of Spain’s water tables have seen pollution from nitrates increase between 2016 and 2019, the report said citing Spanish government figures.

Nearly 29 percent of the country’s water tables had more than the amount of nitrate considered safe for drinking, according to a survey carried out by Greenpeace across Spain between April and September.

The environmental group said the government was not doing enough.

It pointed out that the amount of land deemed an “area vulnerable to nitrates” has risen to 12 million hectares in 2021, or 24 percent of Spain’s land mass, from around eight million hectares a decade ago, yet industrial farming has continued to grow.

“It is paradoxical to declare more and more areas vulnerable to nitrates”, but at the same time allow a “disproportionate rise” in the number of livestock on farms, Greenpeace said.

Pollution from hundreds of intensive pig farms played a major role in the collapse of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons, the Mar Menor in Spain’s southeast, according to a media investigation published earlier this week.

Scientists blamed decades of nitrate-laden runoffs for triggering vast blooms of algae that had depleted the water of the lagoon of oxygen, leaving fish suffocating underwater.

Two environmental groups submitted a formal complaint in early October to the European Union over Spain’s failure to protect the lagoon.

SHOW COMMENTS