How the war affected German wastewater

Berlin Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine and German water quality – at first glance, they have little to do with each other. But in fact, the Federal Republic is threatened by a serious sewage problem due to the current energy crisis. The federal and state governments are alarmed. The reason: so-called precipitating agents are needed for wastewater treatment. These remove phosphorus from the wastewater before it is cleaned and discharged back into lakes and rivers. But precisely these precipitants are now becoming scarce.

So far, the general public has hardly noticed the precipitant crisis. Sewage treatment plants, on the other hand, have been noticing the delivery difficulties for several months. The majority of them depend on the substance ferric chloride sulphate. “Basically, iron salts are a by-product in chemistry. They occur, for example, in the production of titanium dioxide, a whitening agent that is used in paints and varnishes,” says Stefan Bröker from the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA).