Archive News

November 14, 2016The “Regional Water Supply for Basel-Landschaft 21” project, which was started in 2013, culminated today in a media conference in Liestal.

November 14, 2016A small exhibition in the Lucerne Nature Museum has been curated to commemorate the founding of the Hydrobiological Laboratory in Kastanienbaum 100 years ago in 1916. Visitors will also be able to view the exhibition “A Chance for the Otter”, which will be showing throughout the same period in the Forum Treppenhaus, as well as having the opportunity to learn about the early years of the Institute.

November 10, 2016The theme of the recent Aqua Urbanica event, held on the Rigi by Eawag and the Swiss Water Association (VSA), was the importance of measurements.

November 8, 2016Hydropeaking operations at storage hydropower plants affect hydrological processes and have adverse impacts on river ecosystems. For example, rapid and intense fluctuations in discharge can cause fish and macroinvertebrates to be flushed downstream or stranded.

November 7, 2016Eawag colleague Bouziane Outiti has been nominated for the 2016 Energy Globe World Award for his wastewater treatment project in Morocco. The award, which will be presented on 10 November at the World Climate Conference in Marrakech, is designed to highlight the existence of sustainable and innovative projects that tackle many of our environmental problems while protecting our resources.

November 3, 2016Stream and river restoration measures may be showcase projects for conservationists, but – in the absence of systematic monitoring – it is often unclear what benefits they provide for ecosystems.

October 31, 2016On 1 November 1986, a chemical warehouse at Schweizerhalle near Basel was destroyed by a fire. Aquatic life in the Rhine suffered catastrophic damage as a result of inflows of toxic, red-coloured firefighting water.

October 25, 2016In the coming years, around a hundred wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) across Switzerland are to be upgraded with an additional treatment step in order to eliminate micropollutants. The method of choice is often ozonation.

September 29, 2016A study by Eawag and Zurich University researchers using a new imaging method has revealed that, surprisingly, cocaine accumulates in the eyes of zebrafish. The findings indicate that chemicals – especially psychoactive drugs – need to be assessed quite differently with waterborne exposure than, for example, when pharmaceutical substances are tested in mice. In particular, the uptake mechanisms and effects of cocaine in fish cannot simply be transferred to mammals or humans.

September 27, 2016Together with Eawag, the ETH organized at the beginning of September 2016 the second ETH Week. More than 180 students from 20 countries and all 16 departments accepted the challenge of formulating problems on the theme “Challenging Water” and searching for sustainable solutions.