Towards a Zero-Pollution Strategy for Emerging Contaminants in the Water Cycle

Dear Colleagues,

Water pollution affects human health and aquatic ecosystems. It is one of the main reasons for the loss of biodiversity. Policy makers and researchers have devoted decades of work investigating the origins and fates of pollutants in the environment, and good progress has been made in understanding and reducing pollution loads in receiving waters. Nevertheless, analytical capabilities have shown great improvement, and more chemicals are being detected and quantified at lower concentrations then ever before. This has revealed new challenges such as the presence of persistent and mobile compounds and the development of antimicrobial resistance. And not only chemicals are threatening water quality, but also the presence of pathogens and microplastics have detrimental effects on health of human beings and ecosystems.

In 2020, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal, a new growth strategy which includes the development and adoption of a Zero Pollution action plan in 2021 with aim of protecting citizens and ecosystems. The intention is to enhance pollution prevention by including the zero pollution ambition in all policy areas and the decoupling increase of pollution from economic growth. Water Europe, the multistakeholder platform of the European water sector, is developing a white paper to advocate and promote science and evidence-based zero water pollution strategies for achieving a water-smart society. The guest editors are leading the development of the white paper. In this Special Issue, we are collecting and inviting scientific papers that will underpin the positions on water pollution in the white paper. Publishing an article in this Special Issue therefore offers a great opportunity to create an impact with your research in the development of future policies. It will also help in articulating new research questions in future research programmes such as Horizon Europe.

Prof. Jan Hofman
Prof. Lian Lundy
Dr. Leonard Osté
Dr. Isabel Oller Alberola
Dr. Pascale Rouault
Dr. Luís Mesquita David
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Relevant contaminants in surface water and groundwaters (contaminants of emerging concern including plastics and pathogens)
• Pollution sources and pathways into the environment
• Monitoring and analysis
• Effects (ecotoxicity, human toxicity, antimicrobial resistance)
• Treatment and abatement technology
• Natural treatment systems
• Effects of climate change and demographic changes
• Governance of zero pollutions strategies