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

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