Wastewater Monitoring Program in Abu Dhabi – A Boon to Early Warning & Public Health Issue Prevention

Abstract

The recent establishment of the wastewater monitoring regime by the Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) Government as a tool to monitor the status of community well-being by studying the excretions from the sewage to steer global benchmarks of excellence in public health has been presented. The relevance of microbes and other chemical compounds in sewage and their significance for public health monitoring within the sampled community has been discussed. The key advantage of wastewater monitoring in establishing baseline data and its benefit in assessing the trend in infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and illicit drugs has been presented. Undoubtedly, it is a classic tool available today for early warning signals and trend analysis for policymakers to monitor and avoid the catastrophic impact of deadly pathogens and chemical contaminants upon addressing the challenges.