Latest learnings

Assess­ing risk and deter­min­ing respons­es to Covid-19 were major themes of the most recent Water Action Plat­form webi­nar which took place on 9 July.  Here are six key learn­ings from the inter­ac­tive event which was host­ed by Isle chair­man Piers Clark.

1. Expect sea­son­al resur­gence of Covid-19
   Recent research shows that we can expect resur­gence of Covid-19 due to sea­son­al fluc­tu­a­tions. In an inter­view on the Water Action Plat­form webi­nar on 9 July, hydrol­o­gist Fer­nan­do Miralles-Wil­helm, Chair and Pro­fes­sor at Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land said research into the envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions need­ed for virus out­breaks to “explode” showed the sweetspot for tem­per­a­ture was between 5–11^oC and for rel­a­tive humid­i­ty, between 40–70%. He also explained that this infor­ma­tion is not yet includ­ed in pre­dic­tive models.Miralles-Wilhelm said, “We do expect resur­gence of the virus. It’s a sea­son­al virus like influen­za. As we have very good ways to pre­dict weath­er and cli­mate we can expect to see a resur­gence in November/early Decem­ber in the north­ern hemisphere.

   “If we are pre­pared and take the social dis­tanc­ing mea­sures need­ed, we can min­imise the impact. We have plen­ty of warn­ing, there is no excuse for not being ready.”

2. Waste­water detec­tion can give ear­ly warn­ing on Covid
   The poten­tial for waste­water to act as an ear­ly-warn­ing-sys­tem for out­breaks of Covid-19 in com­mu­ni­ties is being demon­strat­ed by Cana­di­an tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny Lumin­Ul­tra. Repeat­ed­ly test­ing every­one in a giv­en pop­u­la­tion for Covid-19 may not be fea­si­ble, but iden­ti­fy­ing and quan­ti­fy­ing the pres­ence of SARS-CoV­‑2 in their col­lec­tive waste­water can serve as an ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem, alert­ing health authorities.Patrick Whalen, chief exec­u­tive, Lumin­Ul­tra said, “The sci­ence is still evolv­ing but what we know is that peo­ple not only infect oth­ers direct­ly, but also through air and sur­faces. There is poten­tial for waste­water to act as ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem, to deter­mine the pres­ence of asymp­to­matic car­ri­ers with­out hav­ing to run tests direct­ly on people.”

   Respond­ing to a gov­ern­ment call­out for tech­nolo­gies for diag­nos­tic test­ing, Lumin­Ul­tra con­tact­ed Pub­lic Health Cana­da and offered to help shore-up the sup­ply chain for reagents.

   The com­pa­ny has now pro­duced 5 mil­lion quan­ti­ta­tive poly­merase chain reac­tion (qPCR) tests for Cana­da and is help­ing oth­er countries.

3. Sewage based epi­demi­ol­o­gy costs quantified
   Par­tic­i­pants in the Water Action Plat­form have been keen to bet­ter under­stand the cost of imple­ment­ing a sewage-based epi­demi­o­log­i­cal sys­tem. A new research paper from a col­lab­o­ra­tion between engi­neer­ing con­sul­tan­cy Arup, KWR research insti­tute in the Nether­lands and Exeter Uni­ver­si­ty in the UK out­lines the tasks and costs asso­ci­at­ed with design­ing an ear­ly-warn­ing sys­tem and cites two main cost elements.The first is the ini­ti­a­tion phase dur­ing which sys­tems are set up, for which the costs are esti­mat­ed at £200,000. Deploy­ment costs then have to be fac­tored in and for pop­u­la­tions of 3–5 mil­lion that could run up to £1 mil­lion, depend­ing on localised variables.

   Span­ish tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny GoAigua has devel­oped a sim­i­lar pric­ing mod­el which shows that costs vary depend­ing on size and com­plex­i­ty of the util­i­ty and the num­ber of sam­ples, the cost of which ranges from US$30–50 dol­lars per unit.

4. Far-UVC light inac­ti­vates coro­n­avirus­es safely
   Recent research car­ried out in the US has shown that far-UVC light – wave­lengths in the 207–222nm range — effi­cient­ly inac­ti­vates air­borne human coro­n­avirus­es. It is well known that con­ven­tion­al ger­mi­ci­dal UVC lamps, emit­ting 254nm wave­lengths, can be used to dis­in­fect unoc­cu­pied spaces such as emp­ty hos­pi­tal wards and train car­riages, but direct expo­sure pos­es a health haz­ard to humans and can­not be used in occu­pied spaces.The new study from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Irv­ing Med­ical Cen­ter found that more than 99.9% of sea­son­al coro­n­avirus­es present in air­borne droplets were killed when exposed to a par­tic­u­lar wave­length of ultra­vi­o­let light that is safe to use around humans. Far-UVC light can­not pen­e­trate the tear film on the sur­face of the eye or the out­er­most lay­er of skin so it can­not dam­age liv­ing cells in the human body.
   Isle chair­man Piers Clark said, “At these low dose rates, far-UVC expo­sure might well pro­vide a method for reduc­ing the virus in pub­lic loca­tions. On its own this doesn’t solve the pan­dem­ic, but it’s def­i­nite­ly part of the solution.”
5. Very low risk of virus spread­ing through sewage
   An ongo­ing review of the avail­able aca­d­e­m­ic lit­er­a­ture by ana­lysts from Isle con­tin­ues to con­clude that the risk of con­tract­ing Covid-19 through expo­sure to sewage is very low. A recent paper on trans­mis­sion in recre­ation­al waters in the jour­nal Sci­ence of the Total Envi­ron­ment says that while waste­water is a poten­tial dis­sem­i­na­tion route for SARS-CoV­‑2 to recre­ation­al waters, there is lim­it­ed data on the pres­ence and via­bil­i­ty of the virus in water bodies.Isle chair­man Piers Clark says, “More research is need­ed, but we hold to our pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed con­clu­sions that the risk of the virus spread­ing through sewage is very low.”
6. Work­place diver­si­ty accel­er­at­ed at inno­va­tion sprint
   A col­lab­o­ra­tive sprint on Improv­ing Work­place Diver­si­ty in the Water Indus­try will take place as part of the Northum­bri­an Water Inno­va­tion Fes­ti­val. The event, which facil­i­tates sprints and chal­lenges to help solve real-world water issues, will be deliv­ered dig­i­tal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly for the first time and takes place from 14–17 September.Isle is lead­ing the diver­si­ty sprint which will take place 24-hours-a-day, over all four-days of the festival.

   Isle chair­man Piers Clark said, “We’re going to look at how we can improve work­place diver­si­ty in the water sec­tor and I’m delight­ed that a much wider group can get involved than ever before, from any­where around the world. We aim to high­light key issues, gath­er data and share best prac­tice on a top­ic which very rel­e­vant, espe­cial­ly in light of the Black Lives Mat­ter movement.”