The aims of the IAWR

The goal of the IAWR is the sustainable protection of drinking water quality as an essential basis for public health. This requires an effective implementation of the precautionary principle. Accordingly, in the Rhine basin, the Rhine with its tributaries including the lakes and groundwater bodies are to be protected in such a way that the water quality of the drinking water resources allows public drinking water supply using nature-based treatment processes only.

The IAWR feels responsible for the sustainable management of these water resources and has set out the ideals it stands for in the form of ten guiding principles.

Around 120 waterworks in the six countries along the Rhine, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France, Germany and the Netherlands, provide roughly 30 million people with drinking water.

The International Association of Water Works along the Rhine (IAWR) is an umbrella organization for its members:

• ARW - Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rhein-Wasserwerke e. V., (Rhine Waterworks Working Group),
• AWBR - Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wasserwerke Bodensee – Rhein (Working Group of Waterworks – Lake Constance/Rhine) and
• RIWA - Vereniging van Rivierwaterbedrijven (Dutch River Waterworks Association)