Managing emerging pathogen risks in recycled water
M. D. Short A , B. van den Akker A B , P. Monis B and E. Donner A *A Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.
B Research and Development, South Australian Water Corporation, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
Michael Short is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute with research expertise in urban water systems including wastewater treatment and water recycling, public health microbiology and microbial ecology, sustainability and life cycle assessment, and the intersection of environmental science and policy. |
Ben van den Akker is a Lead Wastewater Research Scientist at SA Water and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of South Australia. His research is focused on enhancing the environmental and public health performance of wastewater treatment and water reclamation schemes. |
Paul Monis is a Senior Research molecular microbiologist at SA Water who specialises in developing techniques and knowledge to assess and understand water quality microbial risks to support public health risk management. Most recently Paul was part of the team undertaking the SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring program on behalf of the South Australian Department of Health. |
Erica Donner is Research Professor at the University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute where she leads industry-partnered research focussed on food, soil, and water security; and antimicrobial resistance in the environment. She is Research Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Solving Antimicrobial Resistance in Agribusiness, Food, and Environments (CRC SAAFE). |
Microbiology Australia 43(4) 177-182 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA22058
Submitted: 10 October 2022 Accepted: 25 November 2022 Published: 9 December 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic raised the public profile of wastewater-based infectious disease monitoring. General media coverage about wastewater detection of SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 coronavirus) increased community awareness of the potential use of wastewater for the detection and surveillance of emerging diseases and also heightened recognition of the potential for wastewater to harbour and convey a variety of pathogens. This has also generated questions about the potential public health impacts of emerging pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2 and mpox, in sewage and recycled water. To ensure water security in an era of climate change, water recycling is increasingly important in Australia and other water-stressed nations and managing disease risks in integrated water management is thus of critical importance. This paper demonstrates the existing risk management provisions for recycled water and explores potential issues posed by novel and emerging pathogens. First, a synopsis of some key emerging and re-emerging human pathogens is presented and the risks associated with these pathogens in the context of recycled water provision is considered. Then, an overview of the engineered treatment systems and regulatory framework used to manage these emerging risks in Australia is presented, together with a discusion of how emerging pathogen risks can be managed to ensure safe recycled water supply now and into the future.
Keywords: COVID‐19, emerging pathogens, microbial risk assessment, mpox, quantitative risk-based management, recycled water supply, water recycling.
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