{"id":138338,"date":"2025-03-18T07:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T05:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/from-sewage-and-scum-to-swimming-in-blue-gold-how-switzerland-transformed-its-rivers\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T07:56:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T05:56:19","slug":"from-sewage-and-scum-to-swimming-in-blue-gold-how-switzerland-transformed-its-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/from-sewage-and-scum-to-swimming-in-blue-gold-how-switzerland-transformed-its-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"From sewage and scum to swimming in \u2018blue gold\u2019: how Switzerland transformed its rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138338\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Raw sewage and industrial wastewater flowed directly into water bodies \u2013 in 1965 only 14% of the population was connected to a wastewater treatment plant. Today, it is 98%, and the country has a reputation for pristine swimming waters, sometimes referred to as its \u201cblue gold\u201d \u2013 and it\u2019s all thanks to a complex network of sewage plants. Now Switzerland has some of the cleanest rivers in Europe. According to 2023 data from the European Environment Agency, just five of the country\u2019s 196 bathing areas were rated as poor quality. Politicians across the spectrum agree on the need to prioritise clean water.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Switzerland is leading the world in purifying its water of micropollutants: a concoction of chemicals often found in bodies of water that look crystal clear. They include antidepressants, antibiotics, diabetes treatments and anti-inflammatories, which have unknown and potentially damaging consequences for human and ecosystem health.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, Switzerland became the first country to enforce legislation to clean up drugs and chemicals that collect in waterways. This work is based on a precautionary principle \u2013 if something has unknown effects, err on the side of caution. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time before they cause problems,\u201d says Mattle. Conventional sewage treatment works are designed to deal with organic waste but are less effective with chemicals, hence plants across Switzerland are getting an upgrade.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/mar\/17\/from-sewage-and-scum-to-swimming-in-blue-gold-how-switzerland-transformed-its-waterways-aoe\">Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/5-689\/\">From sewage and scum to swimming in \u2018blue gold\u2019: how Switzerland transformed its rivers<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[575,4256,1165,3143],"class_list":["post-138338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-river","tag-sewage","tag-switzerland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}