Residents of Châtenoy in the Loiret department of France are furious and worried as they await work on the drinking water network. Since 2019, pollutants in the water have made it undrinkable, as local resident Emilie explains: "We were informed in 2023 that we were forbidden to drink the tap water. But it turns out that, since 2019, we no longer had a treatment plant. So, in fact, it's been five or six years that we haven't had potable water." The detection of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), present in PVC drinking water pipes installed in the 1970s and classified as a "definite" carcinogen since 1987, has completely changed their daily lives, to the point where they no longer use tap water to cook pasta or for their coffee machine. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES