For over a century, cities and companies have been dumping waste into the Emscher River in Germany's industrial heartland. But a massive project is bringing life back to Europe's dirtiest river and diverting the sewage into an ultra-modern, underground drain complete with water elevators and cleaning robots. ...
Shortly after German reunification, in 1990, 19 municipalities and numerous companies joined forces to create the Emschergenossenschaft, or "Emscher Cooperative," and draft an ambitious plan. The goal is to use a high-tech sewage system to relieve the burden on the river and its tributaries and transform them back into babbling brooks flowing past blossoming meadows.
This has already succeeded in the upper course of the river, along its first 15 kilometers near Holzwickede. The concrete embankments have been torn up and replaced with greenery. Biologists have already spotted the first freshwater shrimp and snails in the river. Fish species, such as the stickleback, are expected to return soon.
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