Archive News

September 9, 2021An Eawag study has shown that it makes good sense to recover domestic energy, for example from warm shower water. The study refutes concerns that this form of heat utilisation could have a negative impact on waste water treatment plants. In fact, utilising the energy closer to its source reduces energy losses in the waste-water system.

June 18, 2021Bacteria from an Indian landfill could help eliminate contaminated chemicals. The focus is on pesticides such as lindane or brominated flame retardants, which accumulate in nature and in food chains. Researchers at Eawag and Empa used these bacteria to generate enzymes that can break down these dangerous chemicals.

June 11, 2021In the Water Hub, our scientists are researching sustainable and decentralised wastewater treatment. Here, wastewater is not regarded as waste, but as a resource. Now the research platform in NEST can be visited virtually at any time.

June 1, 2021The Zambezi River Basin in southern Africa is a high-quality waterscape. But current rapid development threatens the waters of the Zambezi, particularly its tributaries. The challenge will be to ensure that mitigation measures keep up with population and economic growth to avoid degradation of water quality degradation.

May 28, 2021Treated wastewater can be continuously monitored online with the use of organisms. This gives operators of wastewater treatment plants and discharging industrial companies the ability to respond to acute pollution quickly.

April 12, 2021A mobile handwashing station that hygienically recycles its own water without water mains or sewage connection not only has great potential for deployment in countries lacking in infrastructure. The water wall also has great potential in public transport or at events.

March 25, 2021In the latest NEST podcast with Peter Richner, Tove Larsen talks about what we flush down the toilet, why problems should be solved at the source and why wastewater doesn't lie.

March 23, 2021Online biomonitoring systems offer the possibility of real-time monitoring of wastewater with organisms and enable wastewater treatment plant operators to react immediately to acute pollution in wastewater. So far, however, very little information is available on the suitability of online biomonitoring systems for such monitoring. An applied project by Eawag, the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and the Oekotoxzentrum is now set to change this.

March 22, 2021The motto of today’s World Water Day is “Valuing water – What means water to you?”. With this motto, the United Nations wants to raise awareness of the vital importance of water and call on people to think about the value of water. In an interview, Eawag Director Janet Hering explains the importance of water for the aquatic research institute Eawag and also her personally.

March 11, 2021Rare earth metals such as cerium and gadolinium are increasingly entering wastewater from industry, but also from hospitals. This is shown by Eawag’s investigations at 63 wastewater treatment plants in Switzerland.