G20 podium
Team Blitz India
BERLIN: Wastewater facilities are an essential component of our contemporary infrastructure and have significantly improved the quality of our surface waters. However, their capacity to entirely remove wastewater’s so-called micropollutants is largely constrained. These compounds, which add to the burden on rivers and streams, include, for instance, active components from pharmaceuticals and personal care items, pesticides and other synthetic substances.
A team of biologists from Goethe University, Frankfurt has now studied extensively how wastewater from 170 wastewater treatment plants in Hesse has an impact on the species composition of invertebrates. This has prompted a change in the common conception that human-induced stressors reduce the number of species in a habitat and thus their diversity.
The difficulties experienced by already endangered insect groups and aquatic fauna are exacerbated by this. Previous research, which mostly concentrated on individual wastewater treatment facilities, has already demonstrated that invertebrate populations downstream of such effluents are typically dominated by species that are tolerant of pollution.
