Why in news?

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will launch wastewater surveillance for 10 viruses across 50 cities in the next six months.

Currently operational in five cities, the initiative aims to detect early signs of virus spread and growth trends, enabling timely public health interventions.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• About Wastewater
• ICMR’s Plan for Expanded Wastewater Surveillance
• Importance of Wastewater Surveillance
• Working of Wastewater Surveillance
• Wider Applications of Wastewater Surveillance

About Wastewater

• It is any water that has been affected by human use.
• It comes from a variety of sources, including households (think sinks, showers, and toilets), industries, and agricultural processes.
• Essentially, it’s the used water that needs to be cleaned before it can be safely released back into the environment or reused.

ICMR’s Plan for Expanded Wastewater Surveillance

• Over the next six months, ICMR will scale up wastewater and environmental surveillance (WES) across India to detect early rises in virus load within communities.
• At present, COVID-19 and polio are under watch, but the system will now monitor pathogens linked to fever, diarrhoea, acute encephalitis syndrome, and respiratory distress.
• ICMR is also setting up surveillance for Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) by testing surface water and wastewater in outbreak-prone regions, creating an early warning system.
• This will complement India’s existing surveillance networks for Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) under ICMR and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

Importance of Wastewater Surveillance

• The ICMR highlights that India, like many countries, faces rising emergence and re-emergence of pathogens due to population growth, urbanisation, environmental changes, and human-animal interactions.
• In this context, Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a vital tool for early detection of disease outbreaks, especially after COVID-19.
• WBE provides real-time, community-level insights into infection trends, including among asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals, enabling timely public health interventions.
• It is a cost-effective, non-invasive method that covers large populations, helps identify transmission hotspots, and supports efficient resource allocation for containment.
• By detecting pathogens such as viruses and bacteria in human waste, WBE strengthens global health security by predicting and mitigating future pandemics before clinical cases appear.

Working of Wastewater Surveillance

• According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people infected with viruses or bacteria, even if asymptomatic, shed traces of pathogens through daily activities like using the toilet, showering, or washing clothes.
• These fragments travel through the sewage system, where wastewater samples are collected before treatment and sent to laboratories for testing.
• Within five to seven days, labs can detect infections circulating in the community.
• Public health officials then use this data to track disease trends and guide interventions such as prevention measures, increased testing, or vaccination drives.

Wider Applications of Wastewater Surveillance

• Beyond disease detection, wastewater surveillance also helps identify land-based sources of pollution, contributing valuable data for protecting freshwater and marine ecosystems and maintaining essential ecosystem services.
• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) notes that this approach strengthens both health systems and environmental management, though greater efforts are needed to expand and standardise such practices for effective water quality monitoring.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) is similarly working to build global capacity for wastewater and environmental surveillance, highlighting its dual role in public health protection and environmental sustainability.