Drinking water in Germany is considered the best controlled foodstuff. But processing is becoming increasingly difficult - with dramatic consequences for people and the environment.
Painkillers, liquid plastic... Everything that ends up in our water. Too many stables. How factory farming poisons our water. Sweetener in sugar-free products. This also ends up in our drinking water. You've heard of drug residues before, yes. But I think our sewage treatment plants are so good that we can figure it out. What the sewage treatment plants cannot filter out ends up in our rivers. Therefore, in this documentary a sample of water is taken from the Elbe.
Laboratory analysis later shows that the painkiller diclofenac is floating in the Elbe. 0,03 micrograms per liter. That's very little, but the substance is detectable. Do painkillers and other undesirable substances also end up in our drinking water? Our wastewater from the toilet, shower or sink goes into the sewage treatment plant. With many problematic substances. What the sewage treatment plant cannot remove ends up in the rivers. From there, pollutants can reach the groundwater from which the waterworks obtain our drinking water.
Voltaren pain gel. It contains diclofenac, which was found in the Elbe. The manufacturer will soon point out on the package insert that excess Voltaren money should be wiped off with a cloth and then disposed of with household waste. And: You should not bathe or shower immediately after application. Many painkillers also contain diclofenac. An active ingredient that can damage the kidneys in humans. And in water bodies also those of fish.
Dr. Kim Augustin heads the laboratory at the Hamburg sewage treatment plant and the waterworks, i.e. he is the Hamburg Water laboratory manager: “You could, for example, introduce a scale like in Sweden. It goes from 0 to 9 and you can see exactly how problematic a substance is in the environment. But the Federal Association of Drug Manufacturers is against publishing information about environmental risks. “Among other things, because too little is known about drug residues and their effects on the environment,” we said in response to our request.»
Wastewater from thousands of households ends up in the Lübeck sewage treatment plant. It is carefully treated in numerous basins so that it can be discharged into the adjacent river, the Trave, as cleanly as possible. Enno Thyen is a sewage treatment plant manager and student Henrik Siegel researches pollutants in water. Here they show everything that is being done to get the water clean again. Those round clarification tanks from back there are also familiar from other sewage treatment plants. And where we're standing here, what is that? That's something special, isn't it?
Enno Thyen, Lübeck sewage treatment plant manager: “Yes, the secondary clarification tanks that you have seen separate the sludge from the water and the water usually flows from the top directly into the water in many sewage treatment plants. We have a two-stage filtration system. Here the water is first pumped up from below through a basin with small stones and then back down again in another basin through even finer sand. A lot of pollutants get stuck, but not all of them.”
In many cases, what exactly goes through is still unexplored. Student Henrik Siegel looked into this problem and discovered that, for example, small fibers can pass through the filter material. What fibers are these? Henrik Siegel, biochemistry student: “This is mainly about fleece clothing, for example. In other words, polyester fibers that are released as abrasion when washed in the washing machine, for example, and are then carried into the sewage treatment plant with the wastewater. Everything that is not stopped by the filter basins ends up in the adjacent river through the wastewater treatment plant.”
The analysis later shows: 2,27 micrograms of diclofenac reach the Trave per liter of water. So 75 times more than were found in the Elbe. It is estimated that up to 2 tons of diclofenac end up in our rivers every year from all sewage treatment plants. And this is just the tip of the iceberg...
How polluted is our drinking water? | The tricks... SWR
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"Dravens Tales from the Crypt" has been enchanting for over 15 years with a tasteless mixture of humor, serious journalism - for current events and unbalanced reporting in the press politics - and zombies, garnished with lots of art, entertainment and punk rock. Draven has turned his hobby into a popular brand that cannot be classified.
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