Key facts
At the beginning of 2016, amendments to the Waters Protection Act came into force, enacting regulations to reduce micropollutants in wastewater. The impurities include a large number of harmful trace substances which come from medicines or anti-corrosives, for example. These could not be sufficiently eliminated with sewage treatment plants’ previous purification procedures. A federal levy was introduced to finance the investments of around CHF 1.4 billion required for additional purification. It is levied on all Swiss wastewater treatment plants and refunded as a subsidy to the plants to be upgraded. 75% of the eligible upgrading costs are covered.