What is wastewater monitoring?
Wastewater monitoring involves analyzing sewage to identify and help support the measuring of common illnesses within a community. Because people shed viruses even before symptoms appear, this approach provides insight into overall population health and helps track disease trends and outbreaks over time without individual testing.
When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Ottawa in early 2020, researchers at the University of Ottawa proposed using wastewater monitoring as a tool to help protect the community.
By analyzing sewage samples flowing through the city’s wastewater system, uOttawa researcher Robert Delatolla, CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Environment, Climate Change and One Health, and his team were able to track COVID-19 levels, often days before clinical testing detected an increase in cases. This early warning system became a crucial tool for public health decision-making.
“Within a month of the start of the pandemic, we were reporting COVID-19 disease measurements to Ottawa Public Health and to the city directly. We then trained laboratories and universities across the province to do this same analysis, building the Ontario Wastewater Surveillance Initiative, the first and largest wastewater surveillance program in Canada,” says Delatolla.
Six years later, the wastewater monitoring program in Ottawa has proven its value far beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research team is now turning to the community to help sustain the program in Ottawa (see below). Donations will support the continued monitoring of wastewater, keeping the community informed about trends in influenza, RSV, mpox and COVID-19 as we navigate future respiratory illness seasons and public health challenges.
Why is wastewater data important for public health?
Since the pandemic, uOttawa’s wastewater monitoring program working in partnership with Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has expanded to track influenza, RSV and mpox, along with COVID-19, across Ottawa. It enables OPH to provide near-real-time respiratory virus data to Ottawa residents in a way that’s clear and accessible.
This information, shared on the Ottawa Public Health website, gives residents, caregivers and organizations a clearer picture of what’s circulating in the community at any given time.
This allows individuals to assess personal risk and take informed steps to protect themselves and others. This data can be especially valuable for people who are immunocompromised, living with chronic illness or caring for young children or elderly adults.
For hospitals and health organizations, wastewater data serves as an early warning system. It helps teams anticipate surges in respiratory illness, plan staffing levels, allocate resources, prepare for increased patient demand, and enhance infection prevention and control measures to prevent the spread of illness.
A critical moment for the program’s future
The program has become integrated into Ottawa’s public health infrastructure and has been working in the background to keep the city informed.
However, funding for the partnership between the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Public Health officially ended in September 2025.
Without new financial support, Ottawa risks losing access to this vital early warning system, along with the publicly available data that residents, hospitals and health organizations rely on.
“This program strengthens Ottawa’s ability to track and respond to infectious diseases before clinical impacts are fully felt. It supports proactive planning, helps protect populations at increased risk, and improves readiness across the health-care system.” says Trevor Arnason, Medical Officer of Health at Ottawa Public Health.
Support the future of wastewater monitoring in Ottawa
By supporting this program, you’re helping maintain a resource that protects vulnerable populations, supports front-line health workers and strengthens community resilience.
