Pesticides: Parliament wants to water water protection
Four years after the promise to the people: Pesticide law gradually pulls the teeth
Only recently tightened, the bourgeois farmer lobby wants to loosen the water protection again. It is one of numerous attempts to gradually weaken the Pesticide Act decided.
It was four years ago that Parliament has taken a stake in environmental protection. In order to take the wind out of the sails to take the drinking water and the pesticide initiative, it decided Package of measures. The goal: to reduce the risks of pesticides and over -fertilization for humans and nature.
The wind has now turned. Step by step, the bourgeois farmer lobby in parliament tries to weaken the pesticide regulation again.
Among other things, water protection is in sight. The tightened provisions have only been in force since 2023, which guarantee clean drinking water and should protect the water creatures. Among other things, they stipulate that the authorities have to check the approval of a pesticide if the limit is exceeded at over 10 percent of the measuring points in rivers, streams and lakes.
Return in water protection
So far, the new passage has had no consequences. The initial approvals could falter at the earliest in 2026. But now bourgeoisies want to soften the tightened water protection again.
On Tuesday, the National Council decides on a advance from the Lucerne Mitte-Nationalrat Leo Müller. He wants the criteria for a pesticide check to be relaxed. The limit should not be exceeded at 10, but to 20 percent of the measuring points.
The Zurich Green National Councilor Marionna Schlatter accuses the supporters of the relaxation of wanting to hollow out water protection. « With the unofficial counter-proposal to the pesticide initiatives, the population has been promised that you are now breaking step by step, » she criticizes.
Farmers fear for cultures
Leo Müller points out the accusation. Nothing is changed in the law decided at the time. However, the Federal Council implemented the Pesticide Act too restrictively, he thinks. Müller was sitting on the Board of Directors of the Agricultural Group Fenaco, which sold pesticides until mid -2024. But when he submitted the advance, he had already left the board of directors, emphasizes Müller. He is not concerned with the interests of the corporations, but only the farmers.
Because more and more pesticides are being withdrawn from the approval, farmers have big problems when growing sugar beet and other cultures.
Last year, the parliament tipped out of the law that that the farmers have to create so-called biodiversity funding areas on 3.5 percent of the arable land. According to the federal government, the amount of pesticide used today in agriculture could have reduced by 2.5 percent. In addition, the parliament has postponed the introduction of the planned reporting obligation for the use of pesticide and has now simplified – temporarily – for the time being.
BUND is optimistic – water researchers less
The question arises: What are the consequences of this policy for the environment? With the pesticide measures plan, the parliament had laid down a specific goal in 2021: by 2030, the risks for nature, water and groundwater that assume pesticides must be halved.
A goal that should be achieved according to an interim report by the Federal Office for the Environment of 2024. With groundwater, the goal was even reached in 2022. Of the eleven undertooks, eight are met or are expected to be reached by 2027. « So we are on the right track, » concludes Mitte-Nationalrat Leo Müller. In view of the numbers, he could not be accused of loosening the water protection at the expense of the waters.
However, Christian Stamm, deputy director of the EAWAG water research institute, is a bit less optimistic. Yes, the risks seem to go back, he says. « But it is difficult to assess whether this is sufficient. » The years 2012 to 2015 serve as a reference for the achievement of goals, but very few measurement data has to be considered for this period, the researcher points out.
From the perspective of the water suppliers, too much is at stake to take a risk. Because once the water has been dirty, it remains for decades. Rolf Meier therefore advises caution: « We have to think for the next generations. »
