Duplomb Law: Public water authorities warn of environmental and health risks

The proposed Duplomb agricultural law, which includes the reintroduction of a highly toxic pesticide, poses risks to the environment and public health given the potential consequences for water resources, public water authorities warned on Friday, June 27.

The "challenges" posed by the difficulties encountered by the agricultural world – climate change, transition requirements, economic tensions – "call for strong support (...) , but they cannot justify setbacks in public health" , warns the France Eau Publique network in a letter sent Thursday to the members of the joint committee responsible for examining this text, made public Friday.

This commission, which will bring together 14 senators and deputies on Monday, will have the mission of finding a compromise text, after a tactical rejection of the text, aimed at bypassing a "wall" of environmentalist and rebellious amendments.

"By reauthorizing the (exceptional) use of neonicotinoid pesticides, denying their toxicity and persistence in the environment ," this bill "opens the way to a degradation of natural environments, with serious consequences for pollinators, soils, human health - particularly the neurological development of young children - and of course water resources, major vectors for the diffusion of these substances," estimates France Eau publique, a network which brings together 123 communities and public water and sanitation operators.

Recalling that nearly 12,500 drinking water intakes have been closed since 1980, according to an interministerial report, public water operators believe that "rather than increasing the risks of pollution, it is imperative to strengthen prevention policies" .

"It is essential to support farmers to enable them to better carry out their activities. The text therefore pursues an objective that we share, but the responses provided are not acceptable in view of the environmental and health risks that it will accentuate," said Christophe Lime, president of France Eau Publique, in a message to the press, accompanying this letter.

The reintroduction of neonicotinoids "will permanently alter the quality of water resources, requiring increasingly extensive and costly drinking water treatment for users, whoever they may be," he concluded.

The League Against Cancer also declared on Friday that "by circumventing existing restrictions, this text [the Duplomb agricultural bill] opens the way to deregulation of products recognized as potentially carcinogenic" , "pesticides from the neonicotinoid family, banned in 2018 in France" . The league is requesting the removal of the relevant articles.