EU wastewater monitoring – new surveillance panel now operational

The European Commission has announced the launch of the EU Wastewater Surveillance Panel. This new tool will enable early detection of epidemiological threats and more effective measures to curb the spread of infectious diseases within the EU. Wastewater monitoring will be conducted in real time and will form an integral part of sanitary control measures.

An Innovative Platform for EU Member States

The European Wastewater Monitoring Panel was developed by the EU Wastewater Observatory for Public Health, in collaboration with the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). It takes the form of a digital platform that collects data from member states and presents the latest epidemiological threats through maps, graphs, and charts.

Currently, the platform integrates real-time wastewater monitoring data from eleven EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, and Malta. Through a unified European map, users can quickly analyze information from individual countries for selected pathogens. The new panel is also linked to research platforms, presenting results dynamically.

Wastewater monitoring as epidemic prevention

The primary goal of this new platform is to support public health institutions in tracking, forecasting, and rapidly responding to threats related to the spread of infectious diseases. By reducing delays associated with traditional decision-making systems—based on clinical testing of patients—wastewater monitoring provides much faster and more precise signals about the spread of potentially dangerous pathogens.

Currently, the panel provides information on the presence of three key viruses in wastewater from the eleven reporting countries: SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and RSV. The data comes from over one million sampling points, enabling the tracking of regional disease outbreaks, identifying infection trends, and detecting new virus mutations.

Why is wastewater monitoring necessary?

In the future, the wastewater monitoring system is expected to expand to include all EU member states and integrate data from other regions through collaboration with the Global Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance Consortium for Public Health (GLOWACON). Launched in March 2024 by HERA and JRC, this initiative collaborates with organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African and American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, wastewater and environmental monitoring proved to be a crucial tool during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for faster responses to new outbreaks and improved tracking of virus mutations. The new platform now fulfills the requirements of the revised 2024 EU Directive on Urban Wastewater Treatment. Under this directive, EU member states are required to monitor wastewater in municipalities with over 1,000 residents to detect pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 and to analyze antimicrobial resistance patterns.