The Flemish cabinet wants to declare the Dutch government at fault for violating international environmental regulations. This was reported by the Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir in a press release. At the end of 2020, the Limburg Water Board is said to have wrongly given permission to the company Sitech Services BV at the Chemelot industrial estate to discharge wastewater into the Maas.
Minister Demir notes that these discharges can have consequences for the environment in Flanders and are therefore contrary to international rules. The minister says that she already contacted the Dutch government about this at the beginning of last year, but that she did not get further than “a few official consultations and a request for a company visit.”
According to Demir, it is now “high time to escalate the matter to the highest government, the Dutch Empire, through a formal notice of default that urges the Dutch government to take action.” Her spokesperson arrived late Friday evening NRC know that the minister has “instructed her services to do the necessary” and that a notice of default will actually be issued in the short term.
According to the spokesperson, no damage has yet been identified in Flanders as a result of the discharges. But he says that the Netherlands can be blamed for “not following the European obligation for an environmental impact assessment and therefore Flanders could not impose conditions on the discharges.”
Discussion in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands itself, a discussion has been going on for some time about the possible harmful consequences of discharges from the Chemelot industrial estate for, among other things, drinking water production. For example, at the end of September, several dozen activists and sympathizers of Extinction Rebellion demonstrated in front of the Limburg Water Board head office against the “harmful” discharges and the “bizarre permit” that Chemelot has received.
It is also a topic of discussion in the general board of the water board and several parties want an end to the water permit.
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What the Public Prosecution Service calls justified prosecution, Chemelot companies feel like criminalizing
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