In the 1960s Switzerland was surprisingly lax in creating sewage treatment systems to preserve the water quality in its rivers and lakes. This culminated in an outbreak of typhoid at Zermatt in 1963, which led to several deaths and widespread illness. It was found that raw sewage was the cause of the epidemic, and an outcry from the public led to massive investments in sewage treatment and pollution control. Today Switzerland’s waterways are the envy of their neighbours. In 1965, only 14% of the population of Switzerland was connected to a wastewater treatment plant, but today that number is 98%. The Swiss government has also been working to control the pollution that comes from drugs that are excreted by the body, and flushed down the toilet. Waste water treatment plants push the water through activated charcoal which removes about 80% of those pollutants. The EU is considering new legislation that would require any sewage treatment plants which serve more than 10,000 people to treat for the pollutant pharmaceuticals mentioned above.