Heavy metals in watercourses

Heavy metal pollution in Swiss watercourses is on a downward trend.

Heavy metal pollution is showing downward trends due to the removal or greater retention of suspended solids in wastewater plants and the reduction of metals at intake thanks to improvements to many metal processing operations.

The decline in lead can be attributed to falling leaded petrol consumption since the introduction of the catalytic converter at the end of the 1980s.

Lead contamination

Lead contamination in the Rhine at Basel

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Further information

Data

Water: Monitoring data and statistics

Water: Monitoring networks

Last modification 27.04.2021