Veolia Heads Groundbreaking Wastewater Epidemiological Surveillance Across Europe
- Wastewater analysis is a key tool for anticipating health risks, triggering preventive measures earlier, and thus strengthening the effectiveness of public health responses.
- Thanks to its specialised laboratories, Veolia will analyse up to 500 wastewater samples, each subjected to more than 500 different tests, in order to detect emerging health threats at an early stage.
- This surveillance is part of the EU4Health pioneering programme, led by HaDEA (European Health and Digital Executive Agency – European Commission), aimed at monitoring the health status of the Europeans across major cities across the continent.
Veolia is at the helm of a groundbreaking European epidemiological surveillance programme that leverages wastewater as a real-time health indicator. The goal: detect emerging threats early and protect urban populations across the continent.
Veolia will oversee the monitoring aspect of this three-year programme and will analyse up to 500 wastewater samples collected from European cities in its laboratories in Spain. Each sample will undergo more than 500 in-depth analyses, targeting a wide range of pollutants, viruses, bacteria, and drug residues.
This initiative is aligned with the revised European directive on wastewater treatment, which formally embeds epidemiological surveillance as a pillar of public health. It is also part of the European “One Health” strategy, which will enable the analysis of collective behavior, the assessment of the impact of public policies, and the identification of new threats, while strengthening Europe’s health sovereignty. This principle was recently reiterated in the European Strategy for Water Resilience.
Being a pioneer means anticipating tomorrow’s challenges, and that’s exactly what we’re doing here, by transforming wastewater into an early warning tool on a European scale. This project is a concrete embodiment of our GreenUp strategic plan: our environmental solutions are also solutions for the health of citizens and the resilience of European territories. We are delighted to be able to bring the Group’s expertise in water treatment and environmental health to the European Union, and to pave the way for a more connected, intelligent, and preventive public health system.
Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia
The project is led by Veolia, in partnership with the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), Cetaqua (Veolia Water Technology Centre), and the University of Santiago de Compostela. It is based on more than ten years of field experience in wastewater monitoring in Madrid, Barcelona, and Seville, covering nearly a third of the Spanish population.
Daniel Tugues, CEO of Veolia Spain, said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the untapped potential of wastewater for public health monitoring. This project puts that learning into practice on a large scale. We are very proud that the expertise of our teams is recognised at the European level. Thanks to this project, Spain is at the forefront of a new approach to environmental health, combining scientific rigor, technological innovation and a commitment to the common good.”