At around 9.30 a.m., a local resident reported the presence of a white foam on the Bonde river. It was 200 metres long and 5cm thick. Dead fish were observed. An analysis of the water showed no anomaly.

The pollution came from a sugar refinery. It has 13,000m³ of a so-called safety pond collecting rainwater on the site. A dyke separates the pond from the Bonde river. On this dyke there is a pipeline in which water from the safety pond circulates via a pump. The pipeline was dislodged, allowing an indefinite quantity of liquid effluents to flow towards the Bonde river. Extensive gullying was noted on the bank, caused by this water runoff. The safety pond was covered with a whitish foam identical to the river pollution. Moreover, the safety pond is designed to collect only the rainwater from the facility. Following a discussion with the operator, it proved that the latter uses soda for the clean-up performed at the end of the beetroot season, and this generates soda-base effluents guided by gravity flow through a system of drainage channels towards the safety pond. Although the operator was unable to give details of the quantities used, the volume of soda employed is estimated at approximately several tonnes. The pond therefore currently collects industrial process effluents, which is unauthorised.

A formal notification order was issued. The operator had to take the following measures:

• stop all sending of process waters and plant and equipment cleaning waters to the safety pond which is reserved for rainwater management;
• have the state of the safety pond (banks, equipment, accessories) inspected by a competent organisation which will submit the inspection report to the classified facilities inspectorate together with a schedule of works or actions to be performed as soon as possible;
• have a competent organisation perform diagnosis of the state of the Bonde river and submit to the classified facilities inspectorate the report on this diagnosis together with a proposal and a schedule of works to reclaim the environment;
• gather the dead fish and organisms as a consequence of the pollution and clean the river.