Ciney residents are exposed to much higher levels of the forever chemical trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) than typical European standards, RTBF reported on Friday.
Local authorities in Ciney, a town in Namur, conducted their own tests on water supplies following a high-profile "forever chemicals" scandal that has rocked Wallonia and wider Belgium since late last year.
"We had to carry out tests ourselves," Ciney's Councillor for Health Jean-Marc Gaspard told RTBF. "And the tests have indeed alarmed us."
The results, aided by extensive monitoring by the Walloon Water Society, were published on Thursday and show a high presence of TFA, a "by-product" of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are known as forever chemicals because of their inability to break down in the environment.
On 22 July 2024, Ciney authorities sampled water from three locations in the municipality. Analysis showed TFA levels of 1100 ng/L in Ciney’s town centre, 1600 ng/L in Pessoux and 2400 ng/L in Braibant.
According to an upcoming European drinking water directive, effective from January 2026, PFAS levels should be capped at 500 ng/L. In Ciney, this limit is exceeded by TFA alone.
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Ciney residents have not yet been officially informed and local authorities have called on Walloon Minister for Environment and Health Yves Coppieters, Agriculture Minister Anne-Catherine Dalcq and water distributors to issue an action plan.
"We were really shocked by the scale of the problem," said environmental policy officer Xavier Delwarte.
"Until the non-toxicity of pesticides containing PFAS has been proven, we are calling for the precautionary principle to be applied, and for the use of all these pesticides with PFAS active ingredients to be stopped."
