KWR/RIWA-Rijn project mentioned in magazine article - Efforts to fulfill the Water Framework Directive have not helped to reduce drinking water treatment efforts so far. Study findings on the Dutch Rhine water quality

“With its length of 1,230 km and a catchment area of 185,000 km, the river Rhine accumulates a large portion of the pollutants emitted by about 61 million people and which cannot be eliminated in wastewater treatment plants completely, plus the treated wastewater from a lot of industry sites and the rainwater directly discharged from the surfaces, probably contaminated with herbicides and pesticides.
From the source in Switzerland to the Rheindelta area in the Netherlands, about 30 million people receive their drinking water directly or indirectly from the Rhine. Thus all the measures carried out in the Rhine catchment area so far to fulfill the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) should have an impact on the Dutch Rhine water quality and the treatment efforts needed to fulfill the drinking water requirements. In January 2020, the association of River Waterworks in the lower catchment and Rheindelta areas of the river Rhine (RIWA-Rijn) published a study in which a quantitative measure to assess water quality in the light of the level of required purification treatment was developed. Furthermore, the calculations can be taken as a quantitative fitness check for the WFD efforts.”

(Citation: Lyko, H. – KWR/RIWA-Rijn project mentioned in magazine article – Efforts to fulfill the Water Framework Directive have not helped to reduce drinking water treatment efforts so far. Study findings on the Dutch Rhine water quality – WaterSolutions 5(2020)1, p. 28-30)