WBEready final conference in Essen
Water management and healthcare build bridges for joint wastewater monitoring.
On 5-6th November, an interdisciplinary team of water management and public health experts came together at Messe Essen for the closing conference of the WBEready research project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG). The experts discussed with scientists, ministries, authorities and stakeholders from the municipal health service over the new findings and methods on wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) that were developed in the project. Together with participants from the BMG, RKI, LZG.NRW, BMUV, UBA, MUNV.NRW, LANUV.NRW, ÖGD and the water management sector, a roadmap for the implementation of wastewater monitoring was successfully drawn up in accordance with the EU Urban Wastewater Directive that was adopted on the same day.
As part of the research project ‘Wastewater-based epidemiology and preparedness: research needs for a roadmap to build adaptive monitoring capacities in the public health service’, the WBEready consortium hosted the closing conference at Messe Essen on 5-6th November. The research consortium, consisting of the Emschergenossenschaft und Lippeverband (EGLV), the Institut für Medizinische Virologie der Universitätsmedizin Frankfurt (UKF), the Institut für KI in der Medizin Essen (IKIM) and the Institut für Urban Public Health (InUPH) der Universitätsmedizin Essen, the Institut für Siedlungswasserwirtschaft der RWTH Aachen (ISA) and the network coordinator Forschungsinstitut für Wasserwirtschaft und Klimazukunft an der RWTH Aachen (FiW), was delighted to welcome over 60 participants from federal and state ministries, authorities, municipal health services and water boards.
The WBEready research project focuses on the development of pathogen-specific toolboxes that can be made available to the public health services for their ad hoc use in the event of an outbreak of pathogens. Research into this type of precaution – also known as preparedness – includes the simulation of processes in the sewer network in the test facility, as well as the sampling of the Emscher-Lippe real-life laboratory and the implementation of quality controls by the participating laboratories. The results of the interdisciplinary consortium are to be used as a roadmap to provide practical guidelines for the relevant stakeholders.
Wastewater-based epidemiology enables non-invasive, timely and integral regional monitoring of human pathogens via municipal wastewater. Until now, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring has already been successfully established during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was able to provide early information on the incidence of infection in a region based on excretions from sick people in wastewater. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Health, the WBEready research project was able to go several steps further: As part of this project, the foundations were laid for the implementation of wastewater-based epidemiology for other circulating and newly emerging human pathogenic viruses and antimicrobial resistances (e.g. influenza A/B, RSV A/B, H5N1, dengue virus). The WBEready team was thus able to show that wastewater monitoring can be made available as a supplementary, integral surveillance tool in order to be able to react effectively to future challenges (preparedness).
The WBEready research project, which is being carried out as a synergy project in close coordination with the federal project ‘Wastewater monitoring for epidemiological situation assessment’ (AMELAG) by the RKI and UBA, was pleased with the lively participation of the key colleagues from the AMELAG team. While a continuation of the research projects on wastewater monitoring is not yet assured due to the currently unresolved federal budget situation, the teams from WBEready and AMELAG have strengthened the existing network and established new contacts between the participants.
Networking and building bridges between the various disciplines involved was a declared goal of the WBEready final conference: the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that different disciplines need time and space to get to know each other and develop concepts together. The closing conference contributed hugely to the creation of an interdisciplinary water-health team and a common working culture.
Good cooperation between the water industry and the health service will become even more relevant in the future when the EU Urban Wastewater Directive, which was adopted by the EU Council of Ministers at the same time as the closing conference on 5th November 2024, is transposed into national law. Among other things, the directive requires all EU member states to set up a system for cooperation between health authorities and wastewater authorities. In accordance with Article 17 of the EU Wastewater Directive, the monitoring of e.g. SARS-CoV-2 virus, poliovirus, influenza virus and emerging pathogens as well as the measurement of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in wastewater treatment plants with a population of 100,000 or more will soon be mandatory.
