update Updated 3 April 2025
category News
All over the world, water managers are faced with the challenge of emerging pollutants and the preservation of good ecological status of water. The 22nd International EURO-INBO Conference will address this essential issue.
Organised by INBO at the invitation of the Po Basin Authority and the Municipality of Parma, in partnership with the French Office for Biodiversity, it will be held in Parma, Italy, from 19 to 23 May 2025. Experts and decision-makers from the water management sector will meet to exchange experiences, issues and concrete solutions to these environmental challenges.
Among the major topics addressed, session 4 will focus on a critical challenge: achieving good ecological status of water by combating emerging pollutants, within the framework of the WFD. These include substances such as pharmaceutical metabolites, pesticides, microplastics and PFAS, whose presence in aquatic environments poses serious environmental and health problems.
The European Union has already taken action by expanding the list of priority substances to be monitored and by strengthening environmental quality standards. However, in 2021, only 37% of water bodies had achieved good ecological status, underlining the urgency of accelerating efforts to reduce this pollution.
Concrete and innovative solutions
The strategies to be integrated into basin management plans and associated programmes of measures to combat emerging pollutants are based on several levers:
- Reduction at source: limiting agricultural inputs, banning certain toxic substances and moving towards zero industrial discharge.
- Interception and treatment: development of artificial wetlands, installation of natural filters and improvement of pollution control technologies.
- Economic incentives: creation of environmental taxes and subsidies to promote sustainable alternatives.
Session 4 of the International Euro-INBO Conference will examine these solutions and assess their relevance at the catchment area level.
