Water and wastewater systems sector global training and community of practice development for wastewater surveillance, detection and response - the water environment federation (WEF) is a…

Water and wastewater systems sector global training and community of practice development for wastewater surveillance, detection and response - the water environment federation (WEF) is a not-for-profit technical and educational organization with more than 25,000 individual members and 75 affiliated member associations representing water quality professionals around the world. Since 1928, WEF and its members have protected public health and the environment. WEF's mission is to connect water professionals; enrich the expertise of water professionals; increase the awareness of the impact and value of water; and provide a platform for water sector innovation. Safe drinking water and wastewater treatment and service are essential to the health and economic vitality of any society. Denial of drinking water and wastewater utilities' services - whether the result of a contamination incident, physical attack, or cyber attack - would have cascading public health, economic, psychological, and governance impacts on the nation. Therefore, the water sector is interdependent with every other infrastructure identified by the U.S. Government as critical. With regard to preventing and controlling emerging and RE-emerging infectious disease threats, the water and wastewater systems sector is particularly interdependent with the emergency services, and healthcare and public health sectors and potentially the pharmaceutical manufacturing and/or other sectors. To that end, WEF seeks to collaborate with CDC in dissemination and adoption of guidance, clinical guidelines, and best practices with a particular focus on training the interdependent critical infrastructures of the water and wastewater systems sector, the emergency services sector, the healthcare and public health sector, the food and agriculture sector, the information technology sector, and potentially the pharmaceutical manufacturing and/or other sectors in moving toward an improved understanding of best practices in support of prevention and control of emerging and RE-emerging infectious diseases and the tracking of diseases as well as antimicrobial/antibiotics resistant (AMR) bacteria. This additionally includes making use of targeted guidance and tools to train these sector personnel in outreach to communities at increased risk to curb and reduce disease spread. The focus of cross-sector interdependent trainings will promote information sharing, problem-solving, and sharing of best practices. These cross-sector training programs are aimed at implementing continuous improvement. Continuous improvement can be gauged through effective metrics that will be provided through the measure of participation and training outcomes. WEF will also support CDC in the development and management of a regional and global network of wastewater utilities, public health, and laboratories participating in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) efforts, as well as provide training about wastewater-based epidemiology as well as wastewater treatment fundamentals for relevant stakeholder groups throughout the U.S. Please see below a summary graphic of the global network WEF envisions for detecting AMR in sentinel sites. In coordination with CDC, WEF will use in-house staff, as well as leverage its subject matter experts within its membership, and collaborative partners from among state, local, regional, tribal, and federal experts to provide support for delivery of training workshops, as well as develop a global network on web efforts aimed at increasing knowledge transfer in support of prevention and control of emerging and RE-emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial/antibiotics resistant bacteria under this CDC award, which includes supporting five workshops within the first year award period. WEF anticipates the total funding amount for this award will be approximately $750,000.00.