A river (illustration). – Pixabay / Pete Linforth
Edit, Friday, at 6 p.m .: The prefecture of the North specifies, in a press release, that “the measurements carried out (…) on April 10, 2020 had not revealed any pollution”. She acknowledges that with “a gradual return to a more normal oxygen level”, “there has been no alert to the regions downstream, in particular on the Belgian side”.
“However, when fish mortality has become significant on the French side, continues the prefecture, the first signs of pollution were also measured on the Belgian side. Consequently, an exchange has been set up between the competent services of the two friendly countries and the French State is prepared to transmit to the Belgian authorities, in compliance with the current judicial procedure, all useful information. “
The Belgian region of Wallonia has estimated tens of thousands of tonnes of dead fish. France is accused by Belgium of “negligence” for having failed to alert about a serious pollution river qualified as “environmental disaster”.
A site of the French sugar group Tereos is at the origin of this pollution which concerns the Scheldt, river crossing France, the Belgium and the Netherlands.
The alert launched by a local resident
In one communicated, Wallonia, a region bordering France, regrets that pollution which occurred on April 9 near Cambrai was “never reported by France to the Belgian authorities”, in violation of an international alert procedure. It was not until April 20 to receive an alert from a Belgian resident of the Scheldt concerned that “the abnormally high presence of dead fish on the surface of the river”, he added.
According to the press release, “Wallonia, for its part, immediately warned Flanders [autre région belge en aval] and the Netherlands of impending pollution “. France is now invited to “clarify this negligence”.
A complaint filed “by the weekend”
A total of 100,000 m3 of blackish liquid, mainly organic matter, was spilled into the wild, as a result of the rupture of a dyke at the Tereos factory in Thun-Saint-Martin (Nord) which was holding beet wash water . According to the French Office for biodiversity, these wash waters “quickly saturated the aquatic environment”. By degrading in water, these organic materials consume the oxygen present and “asphyxiate all organisms living nearby”.
A complaint will be sent to the French authorities “by the end of the week,” said a spokesperson for the Walloon region, Nicolas Yernaux. The “polluter pays” principle could result in a fine of up to one million euros for Tereos “and this only in Wallonia”, depending on the region. For its part, the Cambrai prosecutor’s office said it had opened a judicial investigation to determine precisely the consequences of the breakage of the dam.
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