Water clean-up action needed to combat pesticides?

Governments across Europe could be forced to take water clean-up action, after a report showed that pesticides are damaging many rivers throughout the continent.

Researchers wrote in the journal Science of the Total Environment that water contamination is a bigger problem than it had been originally thought.

The team tested the basins of four major European rivers and discovered that 38 per cent of the concentrated chemicals found could have a devastating impact on living organisms.

It was revealed that the vast majority of the potentially harmful pollution consisted of pesticides that are not currently found on the EU's priority list of dangerous substances.

Researcher Dr Peter von der Ohe commented: "Neither of these pesticides [azoxystrobin and terbuthylazineis are] on the list of 33 priority pollutants, which have to be monitored by authorities throughout the EU."

Last week, the Environment Agency of England and Wales announced it would conduct a study into bacterial pollution that is having a negative impact on waterways in north-westerly parts of England.

Posted by Joseph Hutton