Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jun 20:774:145586.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145586. Epub 2021 Feb 5.

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the wastewater pathway into surface water: A review

Erick R Bandala  1 , Brittany R Kruger  2 , Ivana Cesarino  3 , Alcides L Leao  3 , Buddhi Wijesiri  4 , Ashantha Goonetilleke  4
Affiliations
Review

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the wastewater pathway into surface water: A review

Erick R Bandala et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

With global number of cases 106 million and death toll surpassing 2.3 million as of mid-February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly one of the major threats that humankind have faced in modern history. As the scientific community navigates through the overwhelming avalanche of information on the multiple health impacts caused by the pandemic, new reports start to emerge on significant ancillary effects associated with the treatment of the virus. Besides the evident health impacts, other emerging impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as water-related impacts, merits in-depth investigation. This includes strategies for the identification of these impacts and technologies to mitigate them, and to prevent further impacts not only in water ecosystems, but also in relation to human health. This paper has critically reviewed currently available knowledge on the most significant potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wastewater pathway into surface water, as well as technologies that may serve to counteract the major threats posed, key perspectives and challenges. Additionally, current knowledge gaps and potential directions for further research and development are identified. While the COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing and rapidly evolving situation, compiling current knowledge of potential links between wastewater and surface water pathways as related to environmental impacts and relevant associated technologies, as presented in this review, is a critical step to guide future research in this area.

Keywords: Assessing environmental impact; COVID-19; Potential for surface water dispersion; SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; Wastewater presence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Capacity of wastewater treatment in regions with different income levels (modified from (WWP, 2017)).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic representation of the impedimetric immunosensors preparation for SARS-CoV-2 detection in environmental samples.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Schematic representation of a carbon SPE/rGO-CuNPs to be used for the analysis of pharmaceuticals in wastewater effluents and surface water.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abbas A.M., Fathy S.K., Khamees A.A., Salem A.S., Ahmed L. A focused review on the genital and sexual affection of COVID-19 patients. J. Gynecol. Obstet. Hum. Reprod. 2020;30:101848. doi: 10.1016/j.jogoh.2020.101848. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adelodun B., Odedishemi F., Gbemisola R., Olalekan H., Choi K. Snowballing transmission of COVID-19 ( SARS-CoV-2 ) through wastewater : any sustainable preventive measures to curtail the scourge in low-income countries ? Sci. Total Environ. 2020;742:140680. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140680. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmed W., Angel N., Edson J., Bibby K., Bivins A., Brien J.W.O., Choi P.M., Kitajima M., Simpson S.L., Li J., Tsharke B., Verhagen R., Smith W.J.M., Zaugg J., Dierens L., Hugheholtz P., Thomas K.V., Mueller J.F. First confirmed detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in Australia: a proof of concept for the wastewatersurveillance of COVID-19 in the community. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;728:138764. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138764. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alexyuk M.S., Turmagambetova A.S., Alexyuk P.G., Bogoyavlenskiy A.P., Berezin V.E. Comparative study of viromes from freshwater samples of the Ile-Balkhash region of Kazakhstan captured through metagenomic analysis. VirusDisease. 2017;28:18–25. doi: 10.1007/s13337-016-0353-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arslan M., Xu B., El-din M.G. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via fecal-oral and aerosols – borne routes : environmental dynamics and implications for wastewater management in underprivileged societies. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;743:140709. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140709. - DOI - PMC - PubMed