OneHealthWatch

Practical training to facilitate the implementation of the One Health approach through the very early detection of pathogenic organisms and emerging contaminants in wastewater.

OneHealthWatch will develop a hands-on training program to facilitate the implementation of the One Health approach through harmonised and standardised monitoring of emerging pathogens and contaminants in wastewater from different regions. In this way, the European Union will be helped to achieve its sustainability goals towards a pollution-free environment.

The project focuses on the first phase of contaminants detection (viruses, pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, antibiotics and pesticides), which will allow a rapid implementation of safety measures and contingency methods in case of alarming detection.

However, to implement such wastewater surveillance systems at national scale or even more, there is a need for gathering and assessing experimented practices, to define the best practices to be implemented and spread.

The resulting training will be aimed at sewage and wastewater treatment plant operators and public health officials, who are the key players in the proper operation of wastewater monitoring systems.

At Eurecat, its Training Unit is in charge of developing the online teaching platform, while the Water, Air and Soil (WAS) Unit participates in creating content for the training modules.

The consortium is led by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology research center and has the participation of the Belgian water management company Aquafin NV, as well as Eurecat.