Natural bathing waters will be 20% cleaner in Berlin and 30% cleaner in Barcelona. This will be made possible by smarter rainwater management.

The quality of bathing water in urban water bodies suffers mainly due to the fact that rainwater gets there, which previously flowed through the streets and collected garbage (primarily plastic) and pathogenic bacteria. This happens during periods of heavy rainfall, when the city's wastewater system overflows, and the water does not have time to be filtered, says Europulse..

The authors of the LIFE iBATHWATER project have created a smart system that, firstly, checks in real time the level of pollution of sewage rainwater, and secondly, regulates the drainage system so that it does not overflow due to heavy rainfall.

The LIFE iBATHWATER project is supported by the EU environmental program LIFE.

The project started in 2015, but the administrations of European cities became especially interested in it in 2020, when, due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, many Europeans did not go on vacation and were forced to spend the summer in cities..

To make summer in the city more enjoyable, many city halls began to rid their cities of cars. For example, in the center of Munich there are 14 " In many cities, the development of a system of bicycle roads has begun, so that residents can switch to bicycles and electric scooters from private cars and gasoline-powered public transport.. Among them are Lisbon, Brussels, Milan, Paris and more than a hundred French cities..