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Water resources |
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Water is a basic requirement for life and one of the most important resources on earth. Worldwide, 1.2 billion people still suffer from the consequences of unregulated access to sufficient and drinkable water and 2.6 billion people, 42 % of the worlds population, have no access to basic sanitation. Internationally, the primary focus is on the creation of a secure water supply and wastewater disposal. According to international agreements by 2015 the number of people who still don’t have guaranteed access to drinking water will be cut in half and the unsustainable use of water resources will be stopped.
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Water protection in Germany |
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On a national level the protection of water resources is one of the major tasks of environmental protection. Even though Germany has achieved a lot in water conservation in the past and now has a comprehensive and high quality water supply, there still is much to be done.
Triggered by the EC Water Framework Directive (WFD), which came into effect, on Dec. 12, 2000, a survey on the water pollution was conducted in 2004 by all the German states. In addition to the existing chemical and physical parameters of the water, the survey took into account the aquatic ecology as an essential criteria. In conclusion there is much to be done in order to achieve meet the 2015 goal that all surface waters meet “good ecological status” or at least a “good ecological potential” and “good chemical status”.
Major areas of responsibility are not only the optimization of the structure of water, but also the minimizing of material inputs. The classical pollutant and nutrient inputs from point sources or from diffuse sources such as agriculture should not be the only things analyzed. More attention will be devoted to materials that, when considering surface waters must be classified as priority or priority hazardous.
The reduction of significant pollution will pose new challenges for things such as the cleaning performance of wastewater treatment plants.
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 Projects
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Various IFEU projects have examined the protection of surface waters. These range from a direct assessment of the material items in water bodies such as discharges from sewage treatment plants and industrial discharges, over direct heat inputs at power plant sites (cooling water discharges) to the development of methods for the assessment of plans and measures.
Furthermore, indirect and cross media effects on the protection of water is a part of the work at IFEU. Indirect material inputs occur to a large extent from diffuse sources such as agriculture and the emissions of air pollutants. Studies on the nature and extent of the indirect inputs and identifiable reduction opportunities contribute to the creation of optimization measures in water protection. Cross media effects have been studied with respect to the impact that policies on other environmental aspects such as air pollution control or waste management have on water protection.
The expertise at IFEU can be seen through the appointment of Horst Fehreback to the commission on substances hazardous to water (KBwS). Since 2002 Horst Fehrenbach has been a member of the KBwS. The commission advises the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) in all matters relating to the classification of substances into water hazard classes (WHC). The KBwS is staffed with experts in various disciplines from scientific institutions, specialized agencies of the federal and state governments and from industry.
Assessing the water quality
Measures and management plans
Diffuse pollutant emissions
Cross media effects |
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