KWR involved in global COVID-19 wastewater monitoring effort

In collaboration with Michigan State University, University of California Merced, and Venthic Technologies, KWR has developed W-SPHERE as part of a larger wastewater surveillance project led by PATH, a global health non-profit. “Our ambition goes beyond presenting the wastewater data; we want to showcase how these data can support public health around the world,”  says Gertjan Medema, Principal Microbiologist at KWR and Distinguished Hannah Visiting Professor at Michigan State University.

W-SPHERE is an interdisciplinary team of environmental virologists and public health specialists, as well as engineering professionals. They visualise global data on dynamic maps, on a worldwide and country scale, with options to zoom in regionally at a spatial level while protecting the facility’s anonymity. The maps enable the assessment of the spatial and temporal trends of SARS-CoV-2. In over 2,691 cities and counties worldwide, scientists and utilities are monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, or have communicated that they will be setting up for monitoring soon. The goal is to continue to grow the W-SPHERE, adding more public databases in the next six months.