LIFEPOPWAT

Innovative, affordable and nature-based — LIFE POPWAT ticked all the boxes to win the prestigious LIFE Award 2025 for Circular Economy and Quality of Life. The project’s ground-breaking ‘Wetland+’ technology has already helped clean up former industrial sites in the Czechia and Poland, and is now being trialled across Europe.

LIFE POPWAT, a 3-year, €3.2 million project funded partly by the LIFE Programme, developed a new nature-based solution which removes up to 96% of hazardous persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from waste water in remote industrial areas and landfills which are hard to clean up and often involve complex and costly processes. These pesticides would otherwise enter surface or groundwater where they can accumulate in soil, plants and animals where they pose a potential threat to human health.

After just 2 years of operations, the number of diatom species — microscopic organisms essential for creating oxygen — went from zero to 32 at one project site and from zero to 8 at another. The team also planted reeds, canary grass, sedge and yellow iris to increase biodiversity and help with the filtration process. ‘Our technology is really very simple,’ explained Project Coordinator Miroslav Černík as he accepted the award. ‘This method can be applied to other similar contaminants in other contexts.’ 

Wetland+ technology combines constructed wetlands with reactive zones which clean contaminated water naturally — a low-cost solution which works even in hard-to-reach areas. Speaking in an interview after winning the LIFE Award, the project coordinator said, ‘these natural processes do not require constant supervision, do not produce additional waste and do not need an energy source.’ As a result, a further 30 suitable sites — including in Spain, Italy,   Romania and Montenegro — have been identified which could benefit from decontamination.

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