In 2024, nearly 19.2 million people in France received tap water that contained pesticide levels exceeding the legal standards. This issue has prompted the French government to propose new guidelines to identify which water sources should be considered high priority for intervention due to agricultural pollution. Under the new criteria, only water sources where at least two analyses show pesticide levels exceeding drinking water standards by 100 percent would qualify as priorities. For individual pesticides, this threshold is more than 0.1 micrograms per liter (µg/L), and for the total of all pesticides, it is more than 0.5 µg/L. This change would reduce the number of prioritized sources from 6,000 to 7,000 under the previous 80 percent threshold to about 2,000. The new proposal comes in response to pressure from agricultural groups, such as the FNSEA and the Coordination rurale, who argued that the previous 80 percent threshold was too broad and led to unnecessary interventions. However, the proposal has faced strong criticism from water sector professionals and environmental organizations. Régis Taisne, head of the water cycle department at the National Federation of Concessed and Regulated Collectivities (FNCCR), criticized the new criteria, stating that the government will only act once treatment is deemed necessary—arguing that this approach is too late to prevent harm. Additionally, the proposal excludes water sources contaminated with banned pesticides from being classified as priorities, even if their levels exceed the standards. This exclusion could prevent government action, as it would not trigger intervention under the new rules. Environmental advocates have also raised concerns. Alexis Guilpart, the water reference for France Nature Environment (FNE), described the proposal as a way to "erase the slate" and reduce the number of sources that qualify for priority intervention. This, he argues, would limit the government’s ability to address pollution effectively. In June 2024, a joint mission by the IGAS, IGEDD, and CGAAER had already warned that the situation of water sources in France continues to worsen. With these new criteria, critics fear that the government may not be taking sufficient action to protect public health and the environment from the growing threat of agricultural pollution.