The Water Conference will be held on July 17. Objective: to boost investment. An emergency: the PVC pipes installed until 1980 release a carcinogenic component into the drinking water.
The annual general meeting of the pipeworkers' union, which was held recently, gave the measure of the stakes of the Water Conferences which will be held on 17 July. Elected officials and professionals have outlined the problems of a drinking water and sanitation network at the end of its life. Among them, "dumping".
In contact with the chlorine in drinking water, PVC pipes installed until 1980 release a carcinogenic component, "vinyl chloride monomer" (VCM), into the water.
The 50,000 kilometers of pipes concerned represent 5% of the national total, but "in terms of population, much more", warns the former deputy Jean Launay, coordinator of the forthcoming water conference. The western coast is particularly concerned as well as rural areas, where water stagnates more in the pipes.
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