An Indo-Swiss study titled ‘Monitoring of community wastewater for early signalling the spread of COVID-19’ has found that monitoring of community wastewater is an early, cost-effective, unbiased community-level indicator of the presence of COVID-19 and also of ‘hotspots’ within a community.
It can alert asymptomatic infections in the community through real-time community sewage detection and guide decisions about where and when to impose or relax more targeted restrictions on movement and activity. It can potentially also alert a second and subsequent wave of the pandemic .
The study was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and conducted by a consortium of scientists, academicians and policy scientists from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Mu Gamma Consultants Pvt Ltd (MGC), SRM Institute of Science & Technology (SRMIST).
The study analysed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the community wastewater of different catchments in Chennai, the first-of-its-kind in the region. A total of 156 samples were analysed in the STPs of Chennai City, SRM campus and Chennai Metro Area during partial and post lockdown period, out of which 48% (75 nos.) was found to be positive.
Dr. Girija Bharat of Mu Gamma Consultants said that wastewater has emerged as a good indicator for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 as confirmed by several research studies across the globe. “With that background, we set out to conduct this study in Chennai which confirmed that the level of presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in community wastewater is directly correlated to the spread of COVID-19 in the community,” said Dr Girija said.
Jonathan Demenge, Head of International Cooperation, SADC, India, was also part of the webinar on Friday where the study report was unveiled.