Burgundy villagers left without running water for two years
The Local France - [email protected]
Published: 21 Aug, 2018 CET.
Updated: Tue 21 Aug 2018 10:33 CET
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.
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.
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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.
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