„Bridge over Troubled Water“ – Current Challenges in Water Management

Topic:  ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ – The current challenges facing the water sector

Speaker: Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Hubner, Sonneberg Waterworks

Time: Friday, 16 October 2026, 3.00 pm

Venue: TU Ilmenau,Faraday Lecture Theatre, Weimarer Straße 32, access via Prof. Schmidt-Straße

Admission: 5 euros

We all take the use of drinking water for granted; the treatment of wastewater takes place almost out of sight, whilst rivers and streams are clean and teeming with life. Drinking water seems to us to be a resource that is simply available in unlimited quantities. But can this always remain the case? 

In his talk as part of the TU Ilmenau Citizens’ Campus, Bernd Hubner, plant manager at Sonneberg Waterworks, explains that the water sector faces enormous challenges: climate change with increasing periods of drought; pharmaceutical residues in wastewater; PFAS in drinking water – potentially harmful chemicals which, because they are water- and grease-repellent, were used for decades in everyday items such as non-stick cookware or rain jackets, but which are not biodegradable and therefore accumulate in the water. Even factors that, at first glance, appear to have nothing to do with an unlimited supply of drinking water are a problem: inflation, demographics, civil defence. In the Bürgercampus, Bernd Hubner describes the negative impacts all of this has on our drinking water, as well as the solutions available to ensure that everything remains as it is.

Ursula Nirsberger
TU Ilmenau, Bürgercampus
03677 69-4794
 buergercampus@tu-ilmenau.de