It’s really fate. I’m Dutch by birth, born in Rotterdam, and an Aquarius too. Life has always guided me, and it’s no coincidence when the breadcrumbs are this clear. One of the special signs in my life is the birthmark on my upper left arm. It’s shaped like the source of the Rhine. And my name, Nieuwveld, means “the new field”. Water has always been with me. I was three weeks old when I first came to Andermatt in Switzerland, and to this day I move back and forth between the mouth and the source. In 2020, I followed the course of the Rhine by bike, swimming, in a canoe and on foot. A raindrop takes 31 days to travel from source to mouth. I was on the move for 30 days. Before this journey, my life was characterised by ambition, stress and entrepreneurial drive. From that moment on, I learnt to flow like water. If you have a passion, it must flow and find its own way, like water, around or over obstacles.

For me, life is electromagnetic. There’s the explosive energy of creation that you can feel in spring, or very clearly by a waterfall. And there’s the magnetic force, the attraction. For me, the Gotthard’s pull was inescapable. As a teenager, I cried when I had to go back to Rotterdam after the holidays. It felt as though my heart was being torn out. Then I waited a year until I could return to my beloved Gotthard and my water. At some point, life set everything in motion. All the bridges in Rotterdam came down, through no doing of my own. That’s when I realised: if nothing holds me here anymore, I have to go there. I took the leap, with no safety net at all. I had no choice. I had to go.

There is an enormous amount of litter on the Gotthard Pass, because so many people drive over the passes. Those who hike in the mountains take their rubbish home with them. But some people feel no connection to nature, and that’s where we come in. Since there are usually lakes on the passes, we have been working with around 20 divers for the past three or four years. In the past, the military used to carry out exercises on the Gotthard and Oberalp Passes, right where the springs rise. That’s why, this year, even the army and helicopters were involved. And my favourite subject: cigarette butts. A single one can contaminate up to 1,000 litres of water. It breaks my heart. I don’t believe in bad intentions; people simply don’t know any better. I always tell the volunteers: don’t get angry. Otherwise you clean up on the material level but pollute the field on the energetic level. Do it with joy and gratitude.

I believe in miracles. And I believe that dreams come true when so many people pour their heart and soul together in one place, where the energy of the region acts as a catalyst. In the Gotthard region, we find rock crystals whose clarity is unique in the world. Science can explain water to a certain extent, but beyond that, questions remain. Water is so rebellious: it does many things it really shouldn’t be able to do. I connect my head with my gut brain – the primal brain – and with my heart brain. Where thinking can take you no further, you have to move to the level of experience. That is exactly what we do at the symposium. You can touch water, play with it, create sounds, and experience through virtual reality that you yourself are water. And the speakers and exhibitors share their knowledge. That’s how we bring the worlds together.