{"id":194613,"date":"2026-03-23T09:52:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurecat.org\/contaminants-emergents-un-nou-repte-per-a-la-gestio-de-laigua\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T11:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T10:34:20","slug":"emerging-contaminants-a-new-challenge-for-water-management-life-pristine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurecat.org\/en\/emerging-contaminants-a-new-challenge-for-water-management-life-pristine\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerging contaminants: a new challenge for water management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day we use water for cooking, showering, washing clothes, or cleaning our homes. These are everyday and essential actions, but we often forget that everything we pour down the drain doesn\u2019t simply disappear. In this way, many substances end up entering the water cycle and, over time, can return to the environment through it.<\/p>\n

These substances are called emerging contaminants and include residues of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, cosmetics, pesticides, detergents, microplastics from synthetic clothing or packaging, and industrial compounds such as PFAS. They are often invisible and present in very low concentrations, yet they can accumulate and persist in the environment.<\/p>\n

Their increasing presence in rivers, aquifers, and even drinking water is linked to the widespread use of chemicals in modern life and the limitations of conventional treatment systems in removing them.<\/p>\n

Why conventional treatment is not enough? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Traditional wastewater treatment plants have been designed primarily to remove organic matter, nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus), and microorganisms through processes like sedimentation, biological treatment with activated sludge, and disinfection. These systems are very efficient for this purpose but were not designed to remove dissolved and persistent synthetic chemical compounds.<\/p>\n

As a result, the removal efficiency for emerging contaminants is often limited and highly variable depending on the substance. Available data indicate that in conventional treatments, the average removal can be around 40% for pharmaceuticals, 35% for personal care products, and 50% for pesticides.<\/p>\n

This means that a fraction of these compounds is not completely eliminated by the treatment plant and is discharged into rivers or other water bodies. The difficulty of removal is explained by the fact that many contaminants have very stable chemical structures, degrade slowly, or are present in extremely low concentrations (nanograms or micrograms per liter), making them resistant to conventional biological processes.<\/p>\n

Environmental and health impact<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even in small quantities, emerging contaminants can have significant medium- and long-term effects:<\/p>\n