Switzerland: Professor Andreas Fath tests water quality during Rhine swim

Last Monday the German professor Andreas Fath started swimming the Rhine from source to estuary. In August he will swim the total length of the Rhine (1230 kilometers) and during his trip he will take water samples that will be analyzed by European water technology institutes for inter alia industrial chemicals, hormones, drugs, microplastics.

“Yes, I am bit crazy”, admitted Andreas Fath when he was talking to journalists. With this project Fath has several goals. He wants to get money for new equipment for the university in Furtwangen where he is working as a professor in chemistry. But he will not only raise money. “Of course the river will test me, but I am going to test the river too”, Fath said.

A team of his students is gathering all the water samples and are going to publish initial results during the swim. Detailed research results will be published by the chemistry professor at the ‘7th Hansgrohe Water Symposium’ on 13 November 2014 in Schilltach in the Black Forest in Germany.

Several European water institutes are working together with Fath. The Water Technology Centre in Karlsruhe, the Alfred Wegener institute in Helgoland, the University of Bayreuth, the Swiss aquatic research institute EAWAG and the Dutch centre of excellence for sustainable water technology Wetsus.