boDEREC-CE

Water is one of the most valuable raw materials for today's civilization and one of the most important factors that determine the quality of our lives. Technological development, on the one hand, plays a significant role in various forms of environmental pollution, and hence for water. On the other hand, scientific development can detect and combat these risks. This includes monitoring of the occurrence of recently unknown forms of contamination caused by micropollutants. Recent research shows that the aquatic environment, from which we produce potable water in Europe, contains anthropogenic substances - until a few years ago, their presence was unknown and there are still considerable knowledge gaps. This is where boDEREC-CE sets an innovative approach by implementing pilot sites in CE countries to monitor emerging contaminants (EC), above all pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP). PPCP includes any products used in personal healthcare, cosmetics, and medicated products, many compounds of which are broken down and degraded, many are not, and could persist in soil and reclaimed water, creating potential hazards to environmental and human life. This lack of knowledge needs to be tackled by developing one common course of action and policy on EU level. Thus, boDEREC-CE is focused not only on the study of PPCP behaviour, particular attention is paid to assessing the effectiveness of attenuating this specific type of pollution, using different types of drinking water treatment technologies: the main output is an innovative model based decision making tool, which, given future legal thresholds, can be used as an early warning tool. This tool will be tested under different conditions at waterworks. Furthermore, activities will be started to inform public about measures to reduce the use and waste of PPCP. By the formation of a transnational board, research institutions and waterworks will continue networking for defining standards and guideline values.In Europe, numerous substances which are known to be inside drinking water are not yet monitored. It is necessary to increase knowledge on those substances because their effects on health and the water ecosystems are still to be fully discovered. Within the boDEREC-CE project, first initiatives have been kicked off to increase the availability of data, knowledge, public awareness, and capacities, in order to be able to propose a transnational strategy, including procedures and tools, for mitigating and managing emerging contaminants (ECs) in the water environment, especially in drinking water. Conducted PPCPs sampling campaigns, hydrological field investigations, and modelling within the pilot actions allowed new and valuable insights into the functioning of water systems as well as the assessment of environmental risks that detected contaminants pose. This is new, precious knowledge on a national, regional, but also at global scale, as the occurrence of PPCPs and their impacts on ecosystems and human health are still insufficiently explored. boDEREC-CE outputs and results like monitoring and modelling findings, presented at international conferences, workshops and in scientific publications, enabled the dissemination of know-how beyond boundaries of the Central Europe. The consortium countries developed a joint PPCP monitoring methodology, which enabled the comparison of results and transnational cooperation of experts as well as the integration of stakeholders such as practitioners and decision-makers. The large array of stakeholder groups can directly benefit from TRAST-PPCP, a transnational strategy for the mitigation of PPCPs, and from the decision-making support tools wwDEMAST and modePROCON, which can be applied also to regions beyond CE. Transnational cooperation – especially in the new field of mitigation practices - prove to be essential for the project partnership and beyond, in order to contribute to the transnational strategy for ECs control, prevention and mitigation.