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.
Congratulating the LIFE POPWAT team at the recent LIFE Awards 2025, Kostas Bakoyannis, jury member and Chair of the Commission for the Environment, Climate Change, and Energy (ENVE) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), , said, ‘LIFE POPWAT is particularly impressive for two reasons — one, innovation on the ground and two, its potential to be best practice throughout 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 the ceremony, Miroslav explained ‘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.
As Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy told the assembled guests and online audience at the opening of the event: ‘LIFE is unique. It is a fertile testing ground where a place where ambitious ideas turn into solutions ready to be scaled up.’
LIFE POPWAT supports the EU Directives on urban waste water and waste, as well as the Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Green Deal.
Details
- Publication date
- 26 June 2025
- Author
- European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency
