From the Swiss Blue Community VSA – Association of Swiss Wastewater and Water Protection Experts:
How much should water protection cost?
Water protection faces major challenges. Micropollutants, nutrients, climate change, biodiversity loss, PFAS, heavy rainfall, and aging infrastructure demonstrate that the need for action is real. Greater water protection is necessary – and it is the right thing to do.
This raises an uncomfortable but legitimate question: How much should water protection cost? There’s no simple answer. What is clear is that resources are limited, and any additional expenditure must be carefully justified. It’s equally clear that polluted waters, contaminated drinking water, and damage to ecosystems also incur costs – often higher and less controllable ones.
Therefore, we must not ignore the question of costs. We must openly discuss which measures achieve which effects and where they are most beneficial – in urban drainage as well as in agriculture, in products or in enforcement. Crucially, measures must be implemented where they will have an impact and must actually be feasible.
Taking costs, resources and conflicting objectives seriously does not weaken water protection – it makes it more credible and effective.
I see a central role for the VSA here. We bring together expertise, practical experience, enforcement, planning, and research. We can help translate ambitious goals into practical solutions.
Protecting water resources requires ambition. But it is crucial that progress doesn’t just exist on paper, but actually reaches our waters.
Anja Herlyn,
Co-President of VSA, Managing Director of WIF Partner AG
