Interview: Why water companies want the EU to make polluters pay

The companies that pipe drinking water to most of the EU’s 450 million citizens see themselves as something of a canary in the coal mine when it comes to environmental pollution. At some point, pretty much any pesticides and agricultural run-off, industrial effluent, pharmaceutical residues will find its way into water courses and groundwater. Little surprise, then, that faced with increasingly strict limits on contaminants in tap water, suppliers are calling for tough legislation to make polluters pay.