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ontario's wastewater testing program gets an $18.7 million boost, researchers still waiting for a long-term plan

the work is part of a growing global movement to track numerous diseases in wastewater and to hone in on neighbourhoods and institutions.

by elizabeth payne

apr 12 2023
read time 2 minute read
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rob delatolla is the engineering professor who has headed up wastewater surveillance in ottawa, which was key to tracking covid early in the region. julie oliver / postmedia
ontario’s covid-19 wastewater surveillance program will continue until at least next march, thanks to an $18.7 million investment from the provincial government.
but an ottawa researcher who helped pioneer covid-19 wastewater surveillance in the province said the program needs a longer-term strategy.

rob delatolla, a professor of engineering at uottawa and co-lead investigator on ottawa’s coronavirus wastewater monitoring program said he was pleased to see the additional investment from the province. until that money was confirmed, he feared the program that tracks rates of covid-19 in wastewater would end this summer.

“i don’t want to put a negative spin on it. that (additional money) is appreciated. but we are still waiting for a long-term strategy here, something that is sustainable. i think a lot of people are waiting to see if that will happen.”
ontario’s world-class wastewater surveillance program was built from the ground up during the pandemic in academic labs like delatolla’s at uottawa. the work is part of a growing global movement to track numerous diseases in wastewater and to hone in on neighbourhoods and institutions.
delatolla would like to see ontario’s program mature into something that is better integrated into the public health system and which uses provincial labs or commercial labs to manage the day-to-day surveillance.
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that could well be less expensive than the current system, which relies on academic labs, he said. it would also free up academic labs to do more research to advance the way wastewater surveillance works.
“the academic labs have been waiting to shift gears to research.” currently, any research is being done “off the side of our desks” while the business of day-to-day testing occupies the labs.
the province’s covid-19 wastewater surveillance program has already been trimmed from an initial 175 locations to about 70 sites. the province also stopped funding the variant of concern monitoring program being done by tyson graber, associate scientist at the children’s hospital of eastern ontario research institute.
april 2021: rob delatolla poses in front of a pumping station used to collect wastewater samples that are screened for covid.
april 2021: rob delatolla poses in front of a pumping station used to collect wastewater samples that are screened for covid. adrian wyld / the canadian press
meanwhile, a grant is enabling delatolla’s lab and ottawa public health to continue monitoring wastewater for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (rsv), measles, mpox and polio. covid-19 continues to circulate, but transmission of other viruses have dropped significantly, or have not shown up, with the exception of a small amount of influenza b, said delatolla.
that data will be closely watched in the fall to see whether there is a repeat of last year’s unprecedented viral season that swamped cheo and other children’s hospitals. ottawa public health is also closely monitoring the wastewater findings for any signs of measles. there have been renewed outbreaks of the highly contagious virus around the world related to vaccination rates which dropped during the pandemic.
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academics who are part of the surveillance program have been applying for grants to help expand the work they are doing while they wait to see whether the provincial program will transition to something more permanent.
with most assessment centres closed and a dramatic drop in testing, wastewater remains the most reliable means of understanding the spread of covid-19 and other illnesses in the community.
without that surveillance, ontario will be less prepared for what is coming next, delatolla said.
on its website, the ontario government echoes that, saying wastewater testing will continue to be an important tool “and could inform our response to future public health threats.”
elizabeth payne
elizabeth payne

elizabeth payne is an award winning health journalist whose stories became must-reads during the covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

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