Households without pesticides
In Luxembourg waters the presence of pesticides has been regularly detected in recent years. This is the case for ground water, water flows and lakes. Water analyses show that a large part of these pesticides are not coming from the agricultural use but from a public and private use.
For private use, pesticides are mostly used against insects, rodents, snails, wild herbs, weed and moss. The use of covered surfaces as courts, roads and terraces is particularly problematic. Chemical substances are not sufficiently retained and decomposed by the soil and washed away by the rain into the sewers to end up in the rivers. Water treatment plants are inefficient against chemicals, which can even damage their proper function. Pesticides get into the ground water through the connections of rivers to ground water bodies or through uncovered surfaces.
Pesticides are not only dangerous for the environment but can also cause long-term damage to human beings. Pesticides are difficult to degrade in the body and built up in fat tissue where they can lead to behavioral and genetic malfunctions or harm the immune and nervous system
Water contracts Attert, Obersauer and Our have issued together with the Naturschutzsyndikat SICONA-Westen, the foundation ‚Hëllef fir d’Natur‘ , the water administration and the SuperDrecksKëscht® a flyer about „Households without pesticides “. This flyer is distributed in the member communes of the water contracts Obersauer and Attert and is available with the above bodies or under www.sdk.lu , www.attert.com , www.crhs.eu , www.waasser.lu .
What you can do!
Begin by changing your habits. Surfaces not used for commercial production, it is only the subjective appreciation of beauty, which determines if a plant or an animal is a problem. Natural beauty concepts and the tolerance of a numerous wild herbs and animals is a first step to create attractive sites with significant less damage and weed.
Should some animals and plants nevertheless be a problem for you than try to avoid pesticides as there are frequently ecological alternatives. Promote the resistance of plants by creating appropriate living conditions, selection the right location and soil, multiplicity of types and associations. Natural methods as tearing out weed, collecting pest, use natural pesticides on the basis of nettle or by favoring the presence of natural enemies makes it unnecessary in many cases to use pesticides.
Avoid to use pesticides in particular on covered surfaces and surfaces not used for commercial purposes. Do not risk harming the quality of tap water, multiplicity of types and even your own health because of esthetical considerations.
As of end 2009, the use of total herbicides (‚Tue-Herbe‘, Casoron) will be forbidden by law. Please use the mobile collecting facilities of the SuperDrecksKëscht in your commune or your recycling center to dispose of remainders of these substances. It should also be noted that in the eight member communes of the water contract Attert you will receive a small gift when disposing of your pesticide residuals in the mobile collection of the SuperDrecksKëscht®.
Further information is available with Maison de l’Eau de l‘Attert (www.attert.com) and the SuperDrecksKëscht®.