These French villages have no more drinking water. The reason? PFAS pollution

In recent days, there has been a rush for bottled water at the Aldi supermarket in Blagny, in the Ardennes region of eastern France. “I sold an entire pallet in two hours this morning, 786 liters. That’s up 120% in sales,” said Gauthier Denis, manager of the store. In the parking lot of the Carrefour Market directly across the street, a customer loaded her car trunk with six packs of six bottles. “That should last us four days, no more,” said Sandrine Bouvet, 46, who lives with her husband and stepson in the neighboring village of Malandry. “We were told we can’t drink tap water anymore because of ‘pfffasses’ – I can’t remember how to say it – so we’re buying bottled water.”

Since July 10, bans on tap water consumption due to the presence of highly toxic per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at concentrations never before recorded in France have affected 12 small rural villages in the Ardennes and four in the neighboring Meuse. Nearly 3,500 people are affected.

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