Management actions to mitigate the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in river networks in a global change context
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2021-05-11T07:09:05Z
dc.date.available
2021-05-11T07:09:05Z
dc.date.issued
2020-10-01
dc.identifier.issn
0160-4120
dc.identifier.uri
dc.description.abstract
Human consumption of pharmaceuticals leads to high concentrations of pharmaceuticals in wastewater, which is usually not or insufficiently collected and treated before release into freshwater ecosystems. There, pharmaceuticals may pose a threat to aquatic biota. Unfortunately, occurrence data of pharmaceuticals in freshwaters at the global scale is scarce and unevenly distributed, thus preventing the identification of hotspots, the prediction of the impact of Global Change (particularly streamflow and population changes) on their occurrence, and the design of appropriate mitigation actions. Here, we use diclofenac (DCL) as a typical pharmaceutical contaminant, and a global model of DCL chemical fate based on wastewater sanitation, population density and hydrology to estimate current concentrations in the river network, the impact of future changes in runoff and population, and potential mitigation actions in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. Our model is calibrated against measurements available in the literature. We estimate that 2.74 ± 0.63% of global river network length has DCL concentrations exceeding the proposed EU Watch list limit (100 ng L-1). Furthermore, many rivers downstream from highly populated areas show values beyond 1000 ng L-1, particularly those associated to megacities in Asia lacking sufficient wastewater treatment. This situation will worsen with Global Change, as streamflow changes and human population growth will increase the proportion of the river network above 100 ng L-1 up to 3.10 ± 0.72%. Given this background, we assessed feasible source and end-of-pipe mitigation actions, including per capita consumption reduction through eco-directed sustainable prescribing (EDSP), the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 of halving the proportion of population without access to safely managed sanitation services, and improvement of wastewater treatment plants up to the Swiss standards. Among the considered end-of-pipe mitigation actions, implementation of SDG 6 was the most effective, reducing the proportion of the river network above 100 ng L-1 down to 2.95 ± 0.68%. However, EDSP brought this proportion down to 2.80 ± 0.64%. Overall, our findings indicate that the sole implementation of technological improvements will be insufficient to prevent the expected increase in pharmaceuticals concentration, and that technological solution need to be combined with source mitigation actions
dc.description.sponsorship
Authors acknowledge the support from the Economy and
Knowledge Department of the Catalan Government through
Consolidated Research Group (ICRA-ENV 2017 SGR 1124), as well as
from the CERCA program
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
Elsevier
dc.relation.isformatof
Reproducció digital del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105993
dc.relation.ispartof
© Environment International, 2020, vol. 143, art.núm. 105993
dc.relation.ispartofseries
Articles publicats (ICRA)
dc.rights
Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.uri
dc.subject
dc.title
Management actions to mitigate the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in river networks in a global change context
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.identifier.idgrec
032987
dc.type.peerreviewed
peer-reviewed