ICPR – International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine

240. Strategy for Avoiding and Reducing Micropollutants of Diffuse Origin, Based on the Case Study of Plant Protection Products

 The 14th Conference of Rhine Ministers on 18th October 2007 tasked the ICPR, among other things, with developing a joint, comprehensive strategy for reducing and avoiding the influx of micropollutants from urban wastewater and other (diffuse) sources into the Rhine and its tributaries by improving knowledge regarding micropollutants and ecotoxicological reactions in the environment, and with drafting suitable treatment methods.

The strategy aims at presenting problems and lacks of knowledge and to present recommendations to improve the situation.

Technical reports on 10 groups of substances and an integrated assessment of micropollutants and measures aimed at reducing the influx from urban and industrial wastewater (<link file:769>Technical Report no. 203) have already been published.

The synthesis report “Strategy for Avoiding and Reducing Micropollutants of Diffuse Origin, Based on the Case of Plant Protection Products” focuses on the diffuse influx of extensively discharged substances, which for the most part cannot be precisely localised, and which generally enter bodies of water in an arbitrary manner.