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In order to protect lakes from chronic diseases and threatening conditions and to heal them, strategies similar to those used in human healthcare should be applied: Prophylaxis, regular screening, treatment and mitigation on a local to global scale.

At around 380 kilometres, the Spree is not one of Germany’s longest rivers, but it is one of its most famous. As the capital’s river, it is representative of water bodies in Germany and around the world that are under increasing pressure. While private and commercial interests in its water resources continue to grow, it is also clear that there will be significantly less water available in the future. What needs to be done to counteract this is the subject of controversial debate.

The IGB has provided research-based feedback on a draft legislation to regulate the reuse of municipal wastewater for agricultural irrigation.

In an EU consultation, IGB researchers emphasise that the practical implementation of the Nitrates Directive has so far been inadequate.

Between 1975 and 2020, the known total cost of invasive aquatic plants to the global economy totalled more than 32 billion US dollars. This was calculated by a team led by IGB and the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast in Ireland. 

The contraceptive pill is obviously not intended for fish and frogs. However, the hormones in the pill and other pharmaceuticals that are not completely broken down in sewage treatment plants can affect aquatic organisms. This is because the human hormone system is not so different from that of other vertebrates. In fact, the same transmitters and receptors are often involved. The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls these substances or their mixtures endocrine disruptors, and there are regulations to assess and reduce the risk to humans and animals.

In July and August 2022, a man-made environmental disaster occurred in the in the Oder River: a mass die-off of fish, mussels and snails that started in the Polish section of the Oder and then continued downstream until it reached the border Oder. The immediate cause of their death was a toxin-producing (planktonic) brackish water alga, scientifically known as Prymnesium parvum, which was able to grow en masse due to high salinity, high solar radiation, and low water flow. An IGB Fact Sheet summarises the current state of scientific knowledge.

For many years, IGB research group leader Michael Hupfer has been investigating the impact of opencast lignite mining and post-mining landscapes on the region's water bodies, in particular the River Spree. Now, he has been appointed to the Scientific and Technical Advisory Board “Water Management Measures” of the Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH (LMBV).