Protecting Luxembourg's groundwater

(CS) Luxembourg's government has decided to ban the use of Metolachlor and severely restrict the use of Metazachlor, after a pesticide spill last year left much of the country's groundwater contaminated.

A task force to analyse the use of pesticides in the Grand Duchy was set up after the Haut-Sûre lake in the north of the country was contaminated as a result of a pesticide spill across the border in Belgium in October 2014.

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Environment Minister Carole Dieschbourg announced that is has been decided that the use of pesticide (S)-Metolachlor will be banned on Luxembourg territory.

Additionally, the substance Metazachlor will be restricted to use outside of water protection areas only and in smaller doses. Areas treated with the pesticide between 2012 and this year have also been declared banned zones for 2015.

Luxembourg currently only counts one water protection zone – the Haut-Sûre lake. However, the minister announced that 80 such zones will be created in the near future to help protect the quality of groundwater.

Progress on the process of the legal declaration as a protected zone has already been made on 17 of these.

The quality of around two thirds of the Grand Duchy's groundwater supplies is unsatisfactory, Dieschbourg explained. While the pesticide spill from last year is still causing issues, which a working group has been tasked to tackle, tap water is safe for consumption, the minister highlighted.