Flanders (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Flemish Environment Minister Jo Brouns says all tap water meets legal PFAS limits, responding to Groen, whose 2024 data show 25% of samples miss the strictest target values.
As Nieuwsblad reported, officials mentioned that Flanders meets the current legal limits for PFAS in drinking water. It responds to Groen, whose 2024 data show 25% of samples miss the strictest target values.
What are the PFAS levels in Flemish tap water?
Schauvliege points out that water companies are already spending heavily on additional purification systems to address PFAS. These include activated carbon, ion-exchange units, and advanced filtration methods.
Monitoring has also become more expensive, as laboratories must test for more PFAS compounds. She warns that these rising costs are passed on to customers through higher water bills.
The office of Flemish Environment Minister Jo Brouns does not deny the PFAS figures raised by Groen, but it explains them differently. Brouns says the stricter values cited by the opposition are not legal limits.
They are scientific targets set by the European Food Safety Authority. These EFSA guidelines will only apply from 2028 and will not be binding even then.
“It’s a signal value, not a health alarm,”
they say.
“The legal standard is being met everywhere in Flanders.” Consequently, every Flemish person can drink tap water with peace of mind; there’s no doubt about that,”
says Brouns.
Groen MP Mieke Schauvliege rejects the minister’s explanation and accuses Brouns of creating confusion about PFAS. She says the EFSA guideline is the value that experts agree should guide policy today.
Schauvliege warns that treating the guideline as optional slows down work on water purification, monitoring, and pollution control.
“The European target value is 25 times stricter than the Flemish legal standard, which was established by Brons, not by experts. We should base our approach on what experts consider healthy, not on a relaxed political standard that protects the polluting industry,”
Groen MP Mieke Schauvliege says.
PFAS are a family of persistent chemicals that have been used in the manufacture of products for industrial use, firefighting foams, and products sold to consumers. Over the last 10 years, increasing concern over the presence of PFAS in drinking water in the Flemish region of Belgium has occurred.
The current standards for drinking water established by the Government of Flanders indicate that the water meets these requirements. The issue surrounding PFAS and drinking water in Belgium has been fuelled by the issues identified by the EU Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2020, and will continue to be monitored by the affected communities.
