Swimming to the Swiss Sustainability Award

Water ambassador and expedition swimmer Ernst Bromeis is this year's winner of the Swiss Sustainability Award prix eco.ch in the "Hopefuls" category. eco.ch, the Swiss Forum for Sustainable Development, will present him with the award on March 31 at the Theater Basel. "We are very pleased to be able to honor Ernst Bromeis, such a committed personality who has been passionately working for years for free access to clean water in the world," said a delighted Beat Jans, President of eco.ch, at the eco.ch media conference.

With the prix eco.ch, the association rewards the commitment of individuals and organizations to a livable and sustainable future. Ernst Bromeis explained: "The prix eco.ch is motivation for me to continue on my personal path as a water ambassador. The prize should also give strength to all who doubt to go their own way and stand up for their own convictions."

"We all need water to live".
Davos-based Bromeis has been running the project "The Blue Miracle" since 2007, focusing on water as a human right, a right to life and a general basis for existence. "Nothing connects us humans and all life more than water. We all need water to live. The question is not whether we use it, but how we use water. In this question and its solutions, all of our responsibility, including in Switzerland, is shown, whether we borrow water as a source of life or just consume it," Bromeis said. He regularly draws attention to the human right to water with water expeditions and campaigns. This was also the case today when, in front of an assembled media in Basel, he plunged into the waters of the Rhine at the Klingental ferry and swam there surrounded by kilograms of PET and other plastic waste.

Rhine is polluted with microplastics
This campaign by eco.ch and Ernst Bromeis was intended to illustrate how much microplastic flows through the Rhine in Basel. Although it is not visible to the naked eye, the Rhine is considerably polluted with microplastics, as Patricia Holm, head of the Man Society Environment program at the University of Basel, explained. Of the major watercourses studied along its length, the Rhine is among the most polluted streams in the world. "Around 30 kilograms of microplastics, which includes the smallest pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters, are carried by the Rhine into the North Sea every day," she said. In a year, that adds up to 10 tons. These plastic particles occur as an intermediate product in plastic manufacturing and as granules in cleaning and personal care products, and are produced when larger pieces of plastic decompose in the environment. In the world's oceans, where plastic waste in all shapes and sizes floats as giant islands, these particles are ingested by numerous organisms - from protozoa to baleen whales.