Chlordecone scandal and access to water in the Antilles… NGOs, including FIDH, refer the matter to the Council of Europe

These associations denounce “the violation of the right to drinking water and sanitation in Guadeloupe, as well as the chlordecone poisoning of the populations of the French West Indies”.

Three NGOs denounce the problems of access to water in Guadeloupe and the chlordecone scandal in the Antilles to the Council of Europe. “We are contacting the European Committee of Social Rights on the question of urgent access to drinking water in Guadeloupe, but also on chlordecone poisoning in Guadeloupe and Martinique“, announced Thursday March 21 on France Inter, Sabrina Cajoly, lawyer in international human rights law and founder of Kimbé Rèd FWI., a West Indian association for the defense of human rights.

This association as well as the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights League (LDH) filed on Monday “a collective complaint to the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) of the Council of Europe against France”. This initiative “denounces the violation of the right to drinking water and sanitation in Guadeloupe, as well as the chlordecone poisoning of the populations of Guadeloupe and Martinique”, indicates the FIDH on its website.

This is“demand from France urgent access to drinking water in Guadeloupe”but also “reparations for chlordecone pollution. With this legal action, “our human rights organizations intend to defend the universalism of rights for the entire French territory, thus putting an end to historic inequalities between overseas and France”insists the FIDH.

The International Federation for Human Rights supported this action because only a recognized NGO, “may bring this collective complaint to the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe“, added, also on France Inter, Maryse Artiguelong, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights.

The water situation in Guadeloupe “is only getting worse”

The water situation in Guadeloupe “did not change”She “is only getting worse, in 2020 around 70% of wastewater treatment plants were not up to standard, today it is almost 80%. In 2020 we had 60% water loss in average on the network and today it is more than 80% in certain areas of Guadeloupe”specified Sabrina Cajoly. “The issue of the obsolescence of the installations leads to metals disintegrating in the water” and sanitation problems can “causing fecal matter to end up in the water”she denounces.

In Guadeloupe, “up to 80% of the water produced is lost due to leaks in the networks, causing daily outages that can last from several days to more than a month. When water is available, it is not drinkable due to the obsolescence of the pipes (not properly maintained for 30 years), the failure of sanitation (80% of wastewater treatment plants are not up to standard) and chlordecone pollution”underlines the FIDH.

Almost the entire population of the French West Indies contaminated with chlordecone

In Guadeloupe and Martinique, “while 90% of the population of the two islands, or more than half a million people, are affected by pollution [au chlordécone] through the contamination of water, soil and food, the traceability of chlordecone as a preventative measure and the detoxification of humans as a curative measure are still not guaranteed and, at the end of 2023, only 45 people had been compensated for the damage suffered.regrets the FIDH. “92% is the percentage of the population contaminated with chlordecone in Martinique, 95% is the percentage of the population contaminated in Guadeloupe”explained Sabrina Cajoly.