The Lahn Divers (German: "Lahntaucher") are a nonprofit environmental protection NGO from Central Germany. They operate in Marburg with the aim of ridding the local river, the Lahn, of all rubbish.
Their apnoea divers are trained to ensure the greatest possible safety in the poor visibility of the Lahn, both for themselves and for their buddies.
Using free divers, pedal boats and a giant balance, the Lahntaucher collect and weigh every trash that doesn't belong in nature and especially not in rivers.
To this day, they have freed the Lahn from 12 896 kg of trash.
A special challenge
Some garbage is so large and so firmly embedded in the sediment that even the dedicated Lahn divers reach their limits.
In this particular case, it was a trailer buried in the river. With the assistance of the Ghost Divers from northern Germany and some lifting bags, they managed to remove this bulky refuse from the river.
The lifting bags are inflated underwater and attached to the trailer. Once it has been shoveled free and the bags generate sufficient buoyancy, the waste floats to the surface.
A ride with the trailer through the river later, the coastal team pulls the trailer up the bank, a challenge by itself.
"And what did you do for the weekend?
Oh, nothing special. I was just dragging a trailer through a river."
An ambitious core team, high safety standards and the desire to cleanse our waters of disgusting pollution – these three points make the Lahntauchers so exciting to work with.
