The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has established a new research centre to analyse wastewater. The mining of chemical information from the sewage, researchers believe, will provide information about the health of a city’s inhabitants.
The wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) research facility is being established by the International Centre for Clean Water. CryptoRelief, which has several projects across the country, is supporting the project with a fund of $1 million. The facility will act as an intelligence unit to track and prevent virus outbreaks in its early stage. The data will be made available to the public.
Researchers will use techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and mass spectrometry along with data analytics to test wastewater and provide information about organisms and chemicals identified. It plans to track pollutants, pesticides, and drugs that the population is exposed to. It would detect issues such as the rise in antimicrobial resistance due to excessive consumption of antibiotics.
T. Pradeep, professor-in-charge of the ICCW, said the team would work on building a hydro-informatics platform for the city to give spatiotemporal information of data derived from the WBE studies. The aim is to help identify policies to control pharmaceuticals and personal products and thus improve public health.
CryptoRelief founder Sandeep Nailwal said the intention was to help combat COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are several other pathogens in the population that can be detected through analysis of wastewater.
Wastewater carries molecules that correlate with what people consume and how it changes their health. The project is working on the premise that at an individual or household level, toilet waste can tell a lot about the user.
