Grant: Canada Excellence Research Chairs

We now rely on limited datasets from inadequate technologies to capture the variability of disease surveillance in water networks. This can lead to the mistaken belief that the disease is not present, or to mitigation of incorrect disease source. While better methods exist, there are major knowledge gaps (e.g., sensitivity of tracking approaches) and challenges (e.g., turnaround time, low level of pathogens render them undetectable) in applying them to detecting pathogens in water. Near-real-time monitoring of pathogens is essential to understand and reduce risks from waterborne pathogens, yet regenerative, on-line, low-cost and no-consumable sensors that specifically detect pathogens in water do not exist. Mitigation of pathogens is often conducted without a full understanding of their complex sources, fate and transport, leading to undesired outcomes and costly mistakes that do not result in reduced risks. Adding to the list of challenges, treatment of pathogens in water often relies on traditional treatment systems which use environmentally harmful consumables and have high maintenance costs. These challenges can be overcome. The proposed CERC program will be the first in the world to provide integrated solutions for pathogen surveillance, prediction and treatment. It will design, optimize and validate technologies that can, almost in real-time, detect pathogens and their sources, with an emphasis on systems that are easy to use, low-cost, open-source and open-hardware, enabling their adoption in all parts of the globe. It will develop modelling tools that can represent the sources, fate and transport of pathogens and the risks they pose. Finally, low-cost, green infrastructure treatment systems will be developed and used to reduce pathogen risks during agricultural use, water-based recreation, or consumption. Research outcomes of benefit to Canada include: early warning of waterborne disease prevalence; time-sensitive information about potential disease sources; and, more accurate health responses to control waterborne disease. These outcomes are especially important in Indigenous and other communities that have multi-year boil advisories.