Switzerland is well known for its tasty chocolate, world-class cheese, green mountains, and especially its clear lakes. And indeed, regulations and infrastructure for water conservation and waste water treatment are likely some of the best in the world.

Waste water is treated in a 3-stage process. First, the big pieces dropped into toilets and sinks, as well as other collection points of waste water are filtered out. Then, smaller pieces such as dirt, sand, stones are removed. And lastly, bacteria are being used to split remaining organic material into water, CO2, Nitrate, Phosphorus, and Sulfate. The result is clean drinking water at highest quality. Except that it is not really clean. There are still some micro-pollutants in there. Particularly chemical compounds used in agriculture, industry, and households. Those chemical compounds can currently not be removed from the water.

The river Rhine is the second longest river in Europe, flowing through Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands (and partially forming the borders of those countries with others). In Basel, a city in Switzerland, the river has passed some 380km of the total 1200km on its way to the North Sea. Measurements of micro-pollutants show that 100 tons of chemicals flow with the water at this particular point. Among those, 0.6 tons of Diclofenac, a painkiller. That's equal to roughly 12 million Voltaren pills.

Unfortunately, that's not all of it yet. At that point of the Rhine, approximately 800km from it entering the North Sea, there is also a significant amount of micro-plastics in the water. Those are plastic particles around 0.5mm in size - small enough for animals to eat. They are remainders of plastic bags, bottles, toys, and countless other objects out of plastic. Every day, about 190 million of those particles pass Basel on their journey down the river. That's some of the highest concentration of plastic particles measured worldwide. Although I would assume that such measurements are not yet standardized globally and that we would find even worse measurements if they were.

But that was just the beginning of the bad news here. Those plastic particles, due to their chemical composition, attract other chemicals in the water. Those chemicals, particularly pesticides from agricultural sources, stick together with the plastic particles and lead to concentrations of pesticides in the plastic of up to 100,000 times the concentration in the surrounding water. What happens when animals, such as fish, eat those particles is still largely unknown.

Switzerland plans to update its water treatment facilities to remove 80% of micro-pollutants. To remove micro-pollutants from waste water in 100 facilities, this requires over 1bn Swiss Francs (~1.02bn USD). To equip all 700 waste water treatment facilities in Switzerland with such capabilities, multiples of this amount would be needed.

Sources: This article is largely based on facts from a coverage of Swiss TV station SRF in their documentary Einstein (available in Swiss German).

_____________________________________________

Please share your comments and inputs (via comment function, twitter, e-mail, etc.). In my short write-ups I address topics that I am particularly interested in because they align with my values and beliefs. As such, they are always a reflection of my ideas, thoughts, and opinions. The only thing I am positive in that regard is that I do not have all the perspectives, all the knowledge, or all the facts - help me be better tomorrow.