Virus Free Wastewater

Nidal Hilal, professor of engineering and director of the NYU Abu Dhabi Water Research Center, along with his team have studied the presence of COVID-19 in wastewater, methods of treatment to remove the virus, and ways in which sewage systems can curb the potential of the coronavirus breaking out into a panzootic – an infectious disease capable of infecting all species in an area, like rabies.

Hilal’s newly launched Water Research Center has published findings in the Journal of Water Process Engineering presenting the potential of water-based epidemiology and tools that can be applied to wastewater treatment plants to limit the possibility of a panzoonotic disease.

The presence of COVID-19 in a human’s digestive tract is widely spread and was present in the feces of 39 percent of patients in a recent study. The potential of human-to-animal transmission through feces presents a dangerous situation where the disease could mutate more rapidly as it begins to infect various species, which would present a threat to humans as well as the efficacy of vaccines.

Hilal and his team of researchers at the Water Research Center, which is the first of its kind in the region with unique facilities ranging from nano-to-pilot scale, have stressed the importance of preventing a panzootic by implementing virus detection and removal techniques to wastewater.

“Treatment of wastewater can remove viral particles, preventing their spread to the environment. Various wastewater treatment processes, both conventional and advanced can be applied. Whilst no technique can completely remove all contamination, very high removal rates can be achieved using advanced and multi-step systems,” Hilal said.

Hilal’s research shows the availability of tools to not only detect but also remove COVID-19 from wastewater. This wastewater, in which COVID-19 has been detected in human feces, can be treated to become virus-free. Recent improvements in wastewater treatment, from the use of treatment ponds to algae or nanomaterials with a particular emphasis on membrane-based techniques can be used to remove COVID-19 and other similar viruses from water.

Furthermore, the technology of detecting COVID-19 in wastewater could also be used by governments to gain a better understanding of future outbreaks in specific areas within a city. The method can detect the presence of the coronavirus even in patients that are asymptomatic, providing public health authorities an insight into outbreaks within given areas of a city.

Professor Hilal added, “Study of biomarkers for the SARS-CoV2 virus, which causes COVID-19, can provide real-time monitoring of the spread of the disease geographically, a system termed wastewater based epidemiology. As the virus is released from the body before symptoms occur, this technique can track the infection in a local population before any cases have been recorded, allowing a faster response to be made.”

Although it is yet to be determined, human to animal transmission of COVID-19 can cause animals to become a virus reservoir. Wastewater treatment plants could be a solution for the early detection of the disease in an area through the development of a wastewater based epidemiology plan.

COVID-19 transmission through the fecal oral route is not predominant, but considering that it is the third new coronavirus to evolve to a pandemic in less than twenty years, preparations should be made for the possibility of a pandemic more readily transmissible through this route.