Bathers relaxing by Lake Geneva, Switzerland, at the Bains des Pâquis, a swimming area in the centre of the city. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
In the 1960s, the Swiss had some of the dirtiest water in Europe. Now, their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes – and other countries are looking to follow their lead
"...across Switzerland, such swimming scenes are normal. This hasn’t always been the case. In the 1960s, Switzerland had among the dirtiest water in Europe, blighted by mats of algae, mountains of foam, scum, and dead fish floating on the surface. For decades, swimming was banned in some rivers such as the Aare and Limmat on health grounds, and people could get ill if they swallowed the water.
Raw sewage and industrial wastewater flowed directly into water bodies – 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 “blue gold” – and it’s all thanks to a complex network of sewage plants....A key driver of that transformation was a tragedy in the mountain resort of Zermatt in 1963, when a typhoid outbreak killed three people and made 437 others ill. Soldiers were deployed and schools turned into emergency hospitals as panic spread. Pressure grew on the government to clean up the waterways, found to be the source of the outbreak. In 1971, the treatment of wastewater was written into Swiss law....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 – if something has unknown effects, err on the side of caution. “It’s just a matter of time before they cause problems,” 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....Each year, the Swiss are adding micropollutant treatment facilities to seven sewage plants, and now have a total of 37. By 2040, there will be about 140....In response to Switzerland’s work, the EU requires wastewater treatment plants serving more than 10,000 people to be able to remove micropollutants by 2045."
