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The European Commission acknowledges that lithium pollution poses a risk to European rivers, including the Rhine. This is evident from its response to a letter from RIWA-Rijn, which called for the establishment of a European environmental quality standard for lithium in surface waters.

The Commission stresses the importance of cross-border cooperation and points out that, in the absence of a European standard, Member States must set national standards and incorporate them into discharge permits. RIWA-Rijn emphasizes that swift action is needed to protect drinking water sources and ecosystems and calls on the Rhine riparian states to jointly establish an environmental quality standard for lithium for the entire Rhine.

Read the full press release (PDF)

RIWA-Rijn is pleased to announce that it has joined as a co-signatory of the Ban PFAS Manifesto, an international petition urging prompt and decisive action against PFAS pollution. The manifesto emphasizes clear, scientific evidence that PFAS — known as “forever chemicals” — have contaminated the environment, food chains, and human bodies globally, posing serious risks.

By signing, RIWA-Rijn endorses the manifesto’s key demands: a blanket ban on PFAS production and use in the EU by 2030, swift remediation of contaminated soils and drinking water, and applying the polluter-pays principle.

The persistence and spread of PFAS threaten ecosystems and public health — and substitutes already exist.

For more information on the Ban PFAS Manifesto and its goals, see: https://www.banpfasmanifesto.org