A Belgian water authority is calling on organizers of music and other festivals to be held accountable not only for clearing up trash afterwards, but for getting rid of drug residues in local water supplies.
De Bommel, a water board in the Brabant district, wants festival organizers to hold back wastewater until it has been purified enough to release into sewer systems because removing traces of ecstasy, cocaine and other drugs from the water is expensive. Water board chief Bas Peeters told a local paper that “You can’t explain it to taxpayers.
Peeters pointed out that hospitals in the area already are held responsible for filtering out medicine waste, so it seems reasonable to hold festivals responsible as well. Testing of drug residues in wastewater has helped officials track drug usage patterns as well as providing an accurate assessment of how prevalent diseases such as Covid are in an area.
