diff --git a/C4/Context.pm b/C4/Context.pm
index 85d1c1870a..c63641cc63 100644
--- a/C4/Context.pm
+++ b/C4/Context.pm
@@ -690,7 +690,7 @@ sub _new_dbh
     my $db_passwd = $context->config("pass");
     # MJR added or die here, as we can't work without dbh
     my $dbh= DBI->connect("DBI:$db_driver:dbname=$db_name;host=$db_host;port=$db_port",
-	$db_user, $db_passwd) or die $DBI::errstr;
+    $db_user, $db_passwd, {'RaiseError' => $ENV{DEBUG}?1:0 }) or die $DBI::errstr;
 	my $tz = $ENV{TZ};
     if ( $db_driver eq 'mysql' ) { 
         # Koha 3.0 is utf-8, so force utf8 communication between mySQL and koha, whatever the mysql default config.