Water Wheel May/June 2021: Emerging Contaminants

Abstract

Historically, society’s response to a risk has been based on the level of the current threat and public outcry related to available evidence – whether scientifically supported or not. However, as we are in the information age, the interest and availability of information on the dangers of contaminants in water is gaining ground. Newspaper headlines such as “Testing to begin for ‘Forever Chemicals’”- The Sun or “An invisible killer is lurking in our consumer products, warn scientists”- Sky News and “Let’s turn the tide on plastic”- Daily Mail are appearing more frequently worldwide. In order to address this, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) initiated a project funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC Project No. 2021/2022-00256), in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology and North-West University, to establish an online portal consisting of information relating to newly detected aquatic pollutants.

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