Waste Water Monitoring in Wales

The wastewater monitoring contract is required to support the Client’s wastewater monitoring programme and continue to develop intelligence and surveillance of wastewater, providing sample collection, transportation and analysis across 50 wastewater treatment works (WwTW) and other near-source locations for public health and environment protection in Wales.

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the global profile of Wastewater Based Epidemiology (WBE) as a capability to help monitor different indicators present in wastewater networks. Wastewater monitoring has been used to track the spread of COVID-19 across the UK and the methods and scientific capability has grown considerably over this time.

The Client is developing a case for wastewater monitoring in Wales as an indicator to enhance our public health surveillance systems and create a robust and timely flow of actionable data to support our response to the COVID-19 and other future public health emergencies. This capability could potentially be established earlier than with existing public health intelligence, surveillance and management of infectious disease outbreaks.

The wastewater programme aims to support the Client’s commitment of promoting a better understanding of human, animal and environmental health through the ‘One Health’ agenda.