You turn on the tap..
The water flows, clear.
It looks perfect, doesn’t it?
Fresh, clear, odourless.
And yet, in every glass, there is more than meets the eye.
You are told it is “drinkable”.
That’s true.
But “drinkable” does not mean healthy.
Drinkable just means: legally acceptable.
In other words, that the amount of pollutants it contains does not exceed the thresholds set by law.
Not that it is free from them.
The behind-the-scenes of the tap
Before it reaches your home, this water has passed through fields, roads, treatment plants, sometimes century-old pipes.
It has encountered pesticides, heavy metals, microplastics, pharmaceutical residues.
And despite all the purification technologies, there is always something left.
Belgian treatment plants work seriously.
But they were designed at a time when neither PFAS, nor synthetic hormones, nor nanoparticles.
were known.not the invisible molecules.
(SWDE – “Water and PFAS: what you need to know”)
PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”, are used in non-stick pans, food packaging, waterproof clothing.
They do not degrade. Ever.
They infiltrate the soil, groundwater, and sooner or later end up in the water you drink.
In Flanders, analyses have shown that 1 in 6 samples of drinking water already exceeded the limit recommended by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
(The Brussels Times – “Flemish drinking water highly polluted with PFAS”)
Around Antwerp, certain areas are today prohibited for farming and fishing due to contamination linked to the 3M factory.
(Le Monde – “PFAS in Flanders: the invisible scandal”)
The European Environment Agency confirms that 100% of Belgian surface waters exceed safety thresholds for certain PFAS.
(EEA – PFAS pollution in European waters, 2024)
Pesticides, medicines, hormones
Every year, Belgium uses nearly 9,000 tonnes of pesticides.
Some infiltrate the aquifers, while others reach the rivers.
And a tiny fraction — invisible but very real — ends up in drinking water.
()SPGE – Water quality report, 2023
But the most discreet are the endocrine disruptors : substances that mimic or block our hormones.
They are found in plastics, medicines, cosmetics.
When we talk about residues of oestrogens or contraceptive pills in the water, it is not a figure of speech.
It is a fact.
Studies conducted on Belgian rivers have detected the presence of synthetic oestrogens at concentrations of 3 to 80 ng/L, capable of affecting the hormonal system of aquatic wildlife.
(PubMed 11380169 – Endocrine disrupting chemicals in Belgian rivers)
Even at infinitesimal doses, these molecules have an impact on fertility, development, and the human endocrine system.
(WHO – State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, 2023)
And the water we drink, every day, carries this tiny but constant cocktail :
a bit of PFAS, a bit of pesticides, a few traces of hormones.
All perfectly “compliant.”
The official figures
Belgian agencies publish the analyses.
They are reassuring.
But they remain illegible for the citizen.
It states: 0.07 µg/L of such pesticide, 3.2 ng/L of PFOS…
Everything is below the threshold.
But no one measures the cumulative effect of these substances over twenty years.
The Superior Health Council estimates, for example, that water accounts for about 1.3% of total exposure to PFOS for a Belgian adult — a small fraction, but daily and continuous.
(High Council of Health – PFAS and perchlorate Report, 2024)
So, what to do?
Tap water remains a valuable resource, undoubtedly one of the best controlled in the world.
But it is not perfect.
It is compliant with the law, not necessarily ideal for health.
Some technologies allow us to go further:
- The activated carbon, to absorb some organic compounds.
- The reverse osmosis, which filters molecules down to 0.0001 micron.
- The ion exchange, to neutralise certain heavy metals.
These processes exist, are controlled, effective.
But they are not integrated on a large scale into public networks, because they are expensive.
(The Brussels Times – Purifying PFAS costs millions)
The water you drink is not dangerous in the short term.
But it is not free of everything.
It reflects our time: what we produce, we drink.
What we throw away comes back to us in invisible form.
So, the real question is not:
“Is tap water safe to drink?”
But:
“Does what it contains today still correspond to what our body can tolerate tomorrow?”
Should we wait passively for the drama or the illness ?
And then, it’s too late..