Marine biologist Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius (51, of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven) and an interdisciplinary team of wastewater experts from Leipzig will each receive half of the 2018 German Environmental Prize of the German Federal Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), which is endowed with 500,000 euros. Boetius is being honored for her scientific achievements in deep-sea and polar research. The team from Leipzig consisting of Prof. Roland A. Müller (55), Dr. Manfred van Afferden (57), Dr. Mi-Yong Lee (47, all of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research) and Dipl.-Ing. Wolf-Michael Hirschfeld (70), initiator of the Bildungs- und Demonstrationszentrum für dezentrale Abwasserbehandlung, BDZ, receives the award for its pioneering work on the protection of water resources in Jordan.
The DBU thus calls attention to the importance of the seas for climate, biodiversity and food supply and warns of climate change, environmental pollution and overfishing. At the same time, the further demand of the United Nations to make clean water available to the entire world population by 2030 and to ensure adequate sanitation for all - and thus significantly better living conditions - is being stressed. The prize will be presented by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on 28 October in Erfurt.
A scientist with outstanding talents
"Living oceans are a must. Without them, we cannot exist," said DBU Secretary-General Alexander Bonde at the announcement of the award winners. "Oceans are an important habitat for animal and plant species, the most important accumulators of heat on our planet, and regulate its climate as well." Antje Boetius, the deep-sea and polar researcher and Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, was described by Bonde as an "outstanding scientist with an extraordinary talent for the interdisciplinary understanding of systemic processes in the world’s oceans, and for communicating the interconnections".
Bonde: "Ms. Boetius' most frequently quoted scientific publications deal with marine microbiology, especially with anaerobic methane oxidation. Her research has demonstrated the importance of deep-sea bacteria for the world's climate: Microbes are responsible for the degradation of methane, which occurs in large quantities in the ocean floor, to the exclusion of oxygen. Methane acts as a greenhouse gas with 25 times the impact of carbon dioxide. The bacteria ensure that only a part escapes from the oceans into the atmosphere, thus preventing the planet from heating up faster."
Boetius herself is certain that "climate change is also changing the algae and microorganisms on the ocean surface. They sink by gravity and are the food of the deep sea animals. Therefore, the changes that take place at the top have a direct effect even in the deepest deep-sea trenches." Because of the man-made share of global warming, there is no longer any untouched nature on the planet, she asserts. This is also demonstrated by the almost omnipresent plastic waste and other traces of man. Boetius also believes that the high fishing pressure on the oceans has long been a problem.
But the deep sea provides not only space for largely unexplored ecosystems, but also contains natural resources such as nickel, cobalt and other rare metals. These raw materials are used in high-tech products such as mobile phones, and thus arouse interest in the exploitation of the deep sea. "Personally, I would say that we will not need deep-sea mining for a long time to come, because we have not yet exhausted the possibilities for metal recycling, for reutilization, and for closing the value cycle of metals," says Boetius, marine biologist, ecosystem researcher and science communicator. Her aim is "to make it clear that the as yet unexplored world of the deep sea should be understood as part of the planet and our future, to which the UN Sustainability Goals also apply. Important findings from research into deep-sea species, and their diversity and special adaptation, could be lost forever for future generations in the event of unsustainable mining."
Award-winning team did "great pioneering work"
"In regions with little water, wastewater usually pollutes already scarce drinking water resources and makes people ill. In Jordan, water protection is a matter of survival. With their conviction that effective water protection can be achieved through decentralized wastewater treatment, the members of the interdisciplinary team of experts have developed innovative system solutions in a difficult political environment, have made these solutions consensual, and put them into practice: environmental protection with head, heart and hands!" - With these words, DBU Secretary-General Bonde paid tribute to the Leipzig team of wastewater experts around the research group at the "Environment and Biotechnology Center" of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, and to the BDZ initiator Hirschfeld.
At present, only 20 percent of the world's wastewater is properly treated. In Jordan, one of the three countries most affected by water scarcity worldwide and a country with a population that has grown by almost 70 percent, not least due to refugees from Syria - from 5.6 million in 2006 to 9.5 million in 2016 - 45 million cubic meters of wastewater flow directly into groundwater and pollute it every year in rural areas alone. Canal networks such as those customary in Germany exist in Jordan only in the larger cities.
This is where the Leipzig team entered the picture with innovative ideas: "In order to develop and advance sustainable wastewater treatment, the team of prize recipients has done pioneering work, first in Germany and later in the Middle East,” in Bonde’s words of praise.
By means of decentralized wastewater systems, which can be flexibly adapted to supplement existing central systems, the wastewater is treated directly at its source and can be used immediately to irrigate agricultural areas. This significantly reduces the consumption of freshwater and the introduction of pollutants and germs into groundwater. "Linking old and new structures and creating a functioning, manageable, low-maintenance, cost- and energy-saving wastewater sector is a breakthrough in improving the livelihoods of local people and their children and grandchildren," said Bonde.
The political anchoring and long-term realignment of Jordan's wastewater sector now makes it realistically possible to achieve the Jordanian Ministry of Water's goal of increasing the annual volume of treated wastewater from 140 million cubic meters today to 235 million cubic meters by the year 2025, and to achieve a connection rate of around 80 percent.
Bonde: "It is of crucial importance that this should work: we know that at least two billion people worldwide use drinking water that is contaminated with faeces. In addition to poverty, lack of economic prospects, lack of political participation, and difficult living conditions including water shortages all play decisive roles as central causes of migration."
Press releases, photos and sound samples of the 2018 German Environmental Award can be found at: https://www.dbu.de/123artikel37810_2362.html
