§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what checks are carried out on vegetables imported from Kenya to detect illegal use of DDT. [99452]
1285W
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 27 February 2003]: DDT is a substance which is banned for use as an agricultural pesticide in the European Union under Council Directive 79/117/EEC. However, substances which are not approved in Europe may be used in other countries. Differences in approvals between countries can arise because different approval conditions are applied and because the need for specific pesticides in different countries differs. As far as we are aware, DDT still has public health use in Kenya. The fact that a compound is not approved in Europe does not mean that residues of that compound in imported produce are unsafe or illegal. However, any residues found must not exceed any agreed maximum residue levels set.
The government conducts a wide-ranging annual surveillance programme for pesticide residues in food including imported food. Some 4,000 samples are analysed annually and the programme generates results for over 100,000 pesticide/commodity combinations. All the results are published on a web-site.
www.pesticides.gov.uk/committees/PRC/prc.htm
The surveillance programme for 2002 included monitoring for DDT in green beans from Kenya. No residues were found.
Actual abstruction data by Environment Agency Region and source (million litres per day) 1974 1985 1994 2000 Agency Region GW SW Total GW SW Total GW SW Total GW SW Total Anglian 948 1246 2194 988 964 1952 1054 1149 2203 1000 1668 2668 Midlands 1539 6895 8434 1066 5796 6862 1142 3106 4248 1085 4209 5294 North East 443 6024 6467 468 3394 3862 452 2982 3434 481 5728 6209 North West 904 5298 6202 476 4281 4757 366 2642 3008 268 2694 2962 South West 460 1112 1572 623 2657 3280 675 3969 4644 726 5225 5951 Southern 1052 961 2013 1263 358 1621 1336 1479 2816 1379 4379 5758 Thames 1734 2386 4120 1879 2599 4478 1569 3079 4649 1496 3310 4806 Wales 284 8397 8681 144 8516 8660 183 7012 7195 86 10603 10689 Total 7364 32319 39683 6907 28565 35472 6777.2 25419 32196 6521 37816 44337 Note:
Where: SW denotes surface water and GW denotes ground water
Estimates for future water use in each Environment Agency region are expressed in the below table, as an expected range. These are derived from figures given in the Environment Agency's water resources strategy, Water Resources for the Future, which looks specifically at the years 2010 and 2025. The estimates have not been split into sources of water, though it is anticipated that any additional resources required would tend to be from surface water, rather than groundwater.
Total predicted demand for 2010 and 2025 by Agency Region (million litres per day) 2010 minimum 2010 maximum 2025 minimum 2025 maximum Region Anglian 2563 2813 2013 4263 Midlands 4016 4516 3216 6313 North East 5916 6416 5066 7816 North West 2986 3386 2136 4686 South West 5924 6124 5624 7024 Southern 5451 5551 5051 6451