Archive News

May 21, 2019A team of engineers from ZHAW and Eawag has developed a smart-sensor solution for monitoring drinking-water mains. The system supplies its own energy and sends the data by wireless transmission.

May 17, 2019Wastewater contains valuable resources. However, because existing wastewater management systems have been designed primarily for pollution control and hygiene, the recovery of resources from wastewater is cumbersome.

March 14, 2019Consumption of cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines and methamphetamines is increasing all over Europe according to the latest findings of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). In Swiss cities, the consumption of cocaine and ecstasy certainly appear to have remained at a high level.

March 11, 2019It’s no secret that urine contains valuable nutrients – or that diluting them with water which is then flushed into sewers is not the most sustainable way of managing this resource. But how can urine be kept out of wastewater? Eawag has been investigating this question for many years, and one answer is to use a urine-diverting toilet to separate it “at source”. What may sound simple turned out in practice to be a tricky task, and several generations of toilets were needed to optimise the source separation technology to the point where it can be more widely deployed. 

March 4, 2019A new study by an interdisciplinary team from Eawag has shown that substances from agriculture affect living organisms in rivers and streams to a greater extent than treated wastewater, which has less impact on the species composition of microorganisms. 

February 4, 2019More than 98% of the smallest plastic particles from sewers are retained in sludge. Researchers have been able to prove this by incorporating the precious metal palladium as a tracer in artificial nanoplastics. This innovative method has great potential for keeping track of the behaviour of nanoplastics in technical systems as well as in environmental situations.

January 22, 20193 billion people worldwide live in cities without sewers or wastewater treatment plant infrastructure. This forces them to dump their waste into open waters, contaminating the drinking water for others downstream. Christoph Lüthi shows how we could harness nutrients in wastewater instead of harming human and environmental health.

December 19, 2018Making environment-related decisions can be a complex business. A wide range of stakeholders need to be co-opted, different options need to be assessed and the impacts and consequences estimated. In order to also include the opinions of the wider public, Eawag has developed a new app that features elements of gaming.

December 3, 2018Amphipods in Swiss waters are exposed to insecticides, pharmaceutical residues and other trace substances, and accumulate these in their bodies. However, when water-treatment plants are upgraded, practically no trace substances are found in these organisms according to a new study carried out by Eawag researchers.

November 13, 2018Many infectious viruses are transferred to humans from water or other liquids. A microbiologist at Eawag has now investigated how high the risk of infection is when someone comes into contact with polluted water.