Holistic Utilization of Wastewater-Based Surveillance – Wastewater as an Indicator of Public Health and Materials for Circular Economy

Climate change, population growth and antimicrobial resistance have led to the emergence of new microbes and the transformation of previously controlled diseases. Municipal wastewater is a source of various markers that reflect comprehensive unbiased health information of the entire community. Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS) is a new scientific tool with the potential to act as a complementary approach to monitoring a number of variables such as local pathogens and clinically important indicators. The same contaminants that are monitored in wastewater from a human health perspective make it difficult to recycle the vital nutrients in the wastewater sludge. The infrastructure implemented is expected to promote the necessary measures for high-quality research, digital and green transition and growth. In addition, the solutions are globally scalable. Tampere University (TAU) will construct and implement the research infrastructure in 2024-2026 with collaborators and stakeholders.