Diana's and Chander's joint secondment at RIWA, Netherlands

We are Diana and Chander, the ESR4 and ESR6 of the PRORISK project. We were hosted by RIWA for the joint secondment in the Netherlands in the hybrid format from July-November 2022.

Under the supervision of Gerard Stroomberg and Joanne de Jonge, we performed a case study analysis using the data from both RIWA and NORMAN databases. The study aimed to develop a toxicity index to perform a complex assessment of the water quality parameters combined with ecotoxicological information on pollutants found in the water in the past 10 years. The proposed index was applied to the case study, where we assessed the toxicity input of pollutants found in three locations in the Netherlands and Germany (Koblenz, Eijsden, and Lobith).

After working together remotely on the data gathering and processing, we received a warm welcome at RIWA while working there in person from 14 November to 20 November 2022. During the secondment at RIWA, we gained insights into using publicly available /open-source databases to derive the toxicity information for risk assessment and characterization. Moreover, we also found a lot of interesting correlations between the data about toxicity impacts and water treatment requirements and chemicals used at a specific period in the Netherlands.

Apart from this, we visited Utrecht, a very beautiful and unique city!

Special thanks to Joanne de Jonge for all the support, advice in statistics and data processing.

Thank you for the support and opportunity provided by the EU Commission under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action – European Training Network (Project No.: 859891).