The scultures of the European Water Award and the BWF Certificate of Excellence were designed by Tanja Andrejasic Wechsler, a water advocate, designer and entrepreneur committed to using public space and the marketplace to raise awareness and appreciation for water. She communicates her message by using the design and shape of a water drop in its most pristine form to build awareness and hope.

Awarding the European Water Award in 2023

The first round four-member joury reviewed 22 projects and selected three finalists, which were then judged in a second round by representatives of the partners.

The SYMBIO biomonitoring system is an early warning system against the contamination of water intended for consumption. It combines the natural, dependable bioindication method, based on living organisms called bioindica­tors, with modern technology that enables automatic water monitoring and archiving the data. SYMBIO sets the current standards for water security.

The system operates based on bioindication. Eight specimens of the freshwater mussel, placed in the SYMBIO flow-through tank, are equipped with a probe that co-operates with a magnet stuck to the mussel’s shell. The probe records the degree of each mussel’s openness and its natural bio­rhythm comparable to human’s ECG.

The data is sent to a controller that processes it, and further, to a computer, which visualizes and archives it, and provides reports. It enables us to evaluate the current system operation, and to keep track of the mussels’ activity in the past. Molluscs are sensitive organisms, thanks to which the water utility company, every single second, receives the information, whether the water is suitable for consumption. A sudden closure of the mussels’ shells indicates an adverse change in the parameters of water. In such a case, SYMBIO generates an alarm, to which the laboratory can quickly react, taking water samples for analys.

As SYMBIO is an online system, it can send an alarm signal to a selected e-mail address or mobile telephone number. The mussels work in the unit monitoring the water for three months. After that time, they go back to the lake from which they came, and a new set of organisms, which will monitor the quality of water for another quarter, is installed in the system.