Concerns over water contaminants discussed at World Water Week! 28th August 2019, Stockholm (Sweden)

During World Water Week, the annual conference organised by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the Water JPI  joined forces with the Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance JPIs to discuss water contaminants during a showcase with approximate 50 international participants. See the Program.

Did you know that one of the most serious threats to our freshwater and marine ecosystems, as well as to our health, is the spread of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment?  

With this question Dr Evangelia Daskalakis (Karolinska Institutet) summarizes the key note speakers’ presentations and the panel discussion during the showcase. The key note speakers Dr Foon Yin Lai (Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences) and Associate Professor Carl-Fredrik Flach (Gothenburg University) presented two different perspectives of the Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) with a common message: we are able to manage contaminants that are known in our waters, but certain CECs have been detected at “effect-triggering” concentrations in surface and ground water bodies, and they are causing negative effects, for example, on antibiotic resistance.  The panel discussion by Dr Avelino Conzalez Gonzalez (European Commission), Dr Alexander Keucken (Vatten & Miljö i Väst AB), Dr Kia Salin (Swedish Medical Products Agency), together with the key note speakers and the audience, highlighted the need for action to be taken. Policy regulations, strategic approaches for research as well as implementation of new technologies in wastewater treatment were some of the actions discussed.  The conference focuses on new thinking and positive action toward water-related challenges and their impact on the world’s environment, health, climate, economic and poverty reduction.  This showcase is supported by the Swedish National Research Programme on Antibiotic Resistance and the Swedish Research Council Formas