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Welsh Water is offering a pesticide disposal scheme for farmers, growers and land managers across Wales to safeguard drinking water quality before it reaches treatment works.
As part of the PestSmart scheme unwanted pesticides and herbicides can be disposed of to avoid them reaching drinking water sources or impacting wildlife.
Ian Christie, managing director of water services at Welsh Water, said raw water monitoring detected traces of pesticides not previously found in the water courses that could breach drinking quality standards.
The confidential scheme encourages farmers, land users and growers to consider ways to dispose of weed, disease and pest control that do not harm people, water or wildlife.
Christie said: “We know that pesticides form an essential and everyday role in the agricultural community. However, if stored, used or disposed of incorrectly, they can have a devastating impact on people, water and wildlife. By providing this free and confidential scheme across Wales, we want to work with land managers to reduce the risk of pollution and safeguard raw water quality before it reaches our water treatment works.”
Products used on land when out of date or have become unlicensed can be difficult and expensive to dispose of therefore Welsh Water is keen to work with land users to take the products away with “no questions asked”.
The scheme is available throughout Wales with registration open until 31 March as part of the company’s WaterSource programme.
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