The Secrets of Sewer Water (2022)

The bowels of cities are covered by a vast network of pipes containing a dubious cocktail of waste water. To the northwest of Paris, the Achères waste water treatment plant treats about 80% of the capital's waste water. A sample is taken there by a team of scientists and sent to Germany for analysis. The comparative study of the substances contained in the Paris and Berlin discharges provides valuable information on the medicines and drugs consumed by the inhabitants of the two cities, but also on the industrial chemicals to which they are exposed. These analytical techniques could in future be used by the German criminal police to identify laboratories involved in the production of drugs or explosives.