Trend Dutch water quality under pressure

Summary

The report finds that Dutch water quality is under pressure from a combination of past pollution, intensive land use including agriculture, and climate change. Alongside urban pollution, agriculture is one of the largest sources of contamination of surface and groundwater, as intensive livestock farming and artificial fertiliser send too much nitrate and phosphate into water, causing eutrophication, algal blooms and oxygen loss. The decline in nutrient leaching has stalled since 2012, and water is increasingly polluted with substances that are hard to remove, such as medicine residues and hormones, microplastics and PFAS. Climate change can make sewer overflows more frequent, releasing undiluted sewage and briefly causing heavy contamination with pathogens. The report explains that the effects of past industrial and agricultural discharges are not yet over and that the generally mediocre water quality contributes to biodiversity loss.