Professor Robert Delatolla from uOttawa’s Department of Civil Engineering holds the CIHR Applied Public Health Chair–Environment, Climate Change and One Health. He has shaped how we respond to public health threats.
Known for his leadership in using wastewater to monitor disease at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Delatolla and his research group have recently secured important Genome Canada and NSERC Alliance grants, along with additional funding, to expand and advance wastewater monitoring research across Canada.
Their work, which is built on years of applied engineering research and significant collaboration with the health sector, helps communities respond to emerging health threats by making wastewater a powerful, real-time source of public health intelligence.
From crisis response to long-term collaboration
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Delatolla’s research group pivoted swiftly to develop a wastewater monitoring system. But the transition was not just technical—it was built on strong collaboration. “We were very lucky to work with all our public health partners,” Delatolla says, “and particularly Ottawa Public Health, who often directed our research questions and worked to create new mechanisms to integrate and act on the generated wastewater data.”
Working closely with public health agencies across Ontario, Canada, and beyond, the team was able to identify knowledge gaps and tailor their research to real-world needs. This approach was instrumental in helping wastewater monitoring become a trusted part of pandemic response.
The experience also revealed a key insight for Delatolla and his team: the importance of staying agile. “It can be quite intimidating when you move into a new field with new knowledge and new knowers,” he reflects. “But we were embraced by many of our public health partners, and that allowed us to bring our skills in wastewater infrastructure and analytics into a new space.”
Community support, from institutions and the public alike, was critical. “It really buoyed our team during difficult conditions in those early months of the pandemic,” he says, as they worked to build monitoring systems at the city, provincial and national levels.
Building for equity and future threats
With new funding in place, Delatolla’s group is now focused on expanding the scope and impact of wastewater monitoring.
“We are committed to using wastewater monitoring to promote health equity,” Delatolla says, “and to provide accessible information that helps communities navigate their daily lives.”
One key goal is using the technology to support priority populations—including communities with limited access to health care or where individuals may be hesitant to seek testing or medical care. These groups, Delatolla notes, were often hardest hit during the pandemic.
“We are committed to using wastewater monitoring to promote health equity, and to provide accessible information that helps communities navigate their daily lives.”
Robert Delatolla
— Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
The team is currently leading several new projects:
- Implementing wastewater surveillance in Northern Indigenous communities, through an NSERC Alliance Society program grant, in collaboration with Laval University
- Monitoring for climate change-driven, vector-borne diseases in both southern First Nations and remote northern First Nations communities, through a Genome Canada-funded initiative
- Tracking avian influenza in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia through a CIHR Catalyst Grant, in collaboration with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec (INSPQ).
Each project builds on what was learned during the pandemic, further refining and deploying wastewater tools and supporting more inclusive public health decision-making. Closer to home, Delatolla is working with CHEO, the CHEO Research Institute and Ottawa Public Health to continue surveillance of COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and mpox in Ottawa until at least September 2025. With the increase in the number of measles cases and ongoing concerns about avian influenza, his team hopes to extend this program further. “Maintaining wastewater monitoring in our city is key at this time,” he says.
The next frontier for wastewater surveillance
Delatolla sees wastewater monitoring evolving rapidly as a tool for public health. New assays and analytical methods are being developed at a fast pace, including recent work by his group to detect and genotype measles in wastewater, an approach that is already being tested in Ottawa.
However, challenges remain, particularly in how public health agencies interpret and act on the data. “There are knowledge gaps that limit adoption,” he explains, “especially around how to integrate wastewater findings into current public health and health-care practices.”
To help bridge that gap, the research group now includes statisticians and mathematicians who are working to make wastewater data more useful and easier to apply in real-world public health contexts.
Even as the team shifts from the day-to-day demands of pandemic monitoring back into a more research-driven role, the mission remains the same: to build systems that deliver open, community-accessible health data, particularly for those most at risk.