The latest news from Eawag

Current studies shed light on which pesticides are particularly relevant for the pollution of Swiss watercourses and where they come from. 

The Lake Lucerne Supervisory Commission is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Last Friday, 26 September, invited guests, including government councillors from the five cantons bordering the lake, met with Federal Councillor Albert Rösti at Eawag in Kastanienbaum.

Climate change is altering air temperature and precipitation patterns in Switzerland, thereby impairing the recharge and quality of groundwater. A mix of measures is needed to ensure the sustainable use of groundwater as a resource. Good forecasts enable timely action and support investment decisions.

How much trees in cities actually help to cool their surroundings depends heavily on how moist the soil is.

Eawag scientist Serina Robinson receives the ERC Starting Grant. She is investigating how microbial enzymes bind PFAS.

Groundwater, which provides 80 percent of Switzerland's drinking water, is the focus of the Eawag Info Day taking place today in Dübendorf.

An international study conducted in Eawag's experimental ponds demonstrates how indirect ecological effects influence the evolution of species.

The water research institute Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland are part of the new EU project UrbanM₂O. It is led by the Danish Technical University DTU in Copenhagen. The aim of the six-million-euro project is to develop monitoring and modelling-based solutions to combat water pollution in cities – an issue that is becoming increasingly important with the expansion of sponge cities.

A controversial serum has been necessary for the growth of cells in the context of animal-free toxicology research. Eawag researchers have now developed an alternative.

A new dataset on the water quality in Swiss river catchments is now available. CAMELS-CH-Chem incorporates up to 40 water quality parameters for 115 Swiss catchments between 1981 and 2020.

Diseases caused by Legionella bacteria are on the rise, despite national and international efforts to contain them. A joint paper by an international panel of researchers in this field highlights the important steps that need to be taken in the coming years to combat the pathogen.

Surprisingly little is known about the climate history of the greater Tibet-Himalaya region. However, this information is urgently needed to predict how climate change will alter the water cycle there. Information stored in the sediments of Tibet's Nam Co Lake should now allow new conclusions to be drawn. A video presents the project.

At the beginning of the month, Eawag spin-off Ranas celebrated its anniversary. After five years, companies founded at Eawag are ‘released’ from their spin-off status and stand on their own two feet. During this time, Ranas has developed into a successful, independent company that supports clients in implementing campaigns aimed at behavioural change and prevention.

Wastewater monitoring became well known during the coronavirus period from 2020, when Eawag and its partners began monitoring whether and which coronaviruses could be detected in wastewater throughout Switzerland. However, the researchers are now able to make far more statements about the health of the population because other pathogens and traces of medicines and drugs are also being monitored in parallel. The combination of data from both programmes opens up new perspectives.

By the end of the century, water temperatures in Swiss rivers will rise by up to 3.5 degrees if no action to protect the climate is taken. The rivers in the Alps are particularly affected. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from Eawag and the University of Basel in a research project funded by the FOEN.

The ETH Board appointed Daniel McCurry as a joint professor at EPFL and Eawag. The environmental engineer, who is currently still teaching in the USA, is already on sabbatical at Eawag. From summer 2026, alongside his teaching and research activities at EPFL, he will set up a research group that will also be active at Eawag.