With co-funding from the European Union's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), Africa CDC's Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Africa PGI) officially launched the WASTEWISE project at a workshop that took place from 29 July-1 August 2026 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event brought together around 60 participants in-person and virtually, representing a wide range of stakeholders from Africa CDC, African Union Member States, national public health institutes, national reference laboratories, and other regional and international partners.
The WASTEWISE, or Wastewater Molecular and Genomic Surveillance in African Megacities, project seeks to operationalise wastewater and environmental surveillance (WES) as an early warning surveillance platform in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and Nairobi (Kenya).
Objectives of the WASTEWISE project include:
- Establishing the Africa Wastewater Surveillance Consortium (Africa-WWSC): Building a robust consortium under Africa CDC's leadership to foster coordination and standardisation through consortium structures, partnerships, and a community of practice.
- Implementing Mpox WES pilots programmes: Implementing WES for Mpox surveillance in pilot African cities by conducting sampling, laboratory testing, genomic analysis, and data reporting.
- Enhancing national capacity for integrated WES: Standardising protocols, integrating WES into national surveillance programmes, and supporting the scale-up of sustainable, multi-pathogen surveillance systems across Africa.
Key discussion points
The meeting sought to align partners on the WASTEWISE project's vision, implementation strategy, governance, and regional hub-and-spoke model, as well as share ongoing WES initiatives across Africa for lessons learned and best practices.
Key discussion points from the meeting included:
- Baseline pathogen surveillance: Reviewing current surveillance for pathogens such as enterococcus, coliform, and salmonella, as well as monitoring the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.
- Laboratory capacity and infrastructure: Assessing existing genomics and bioinformatics capabilities, and leveraging platforms such as IPT-Omics for research and diagnostics.
- Covid-19 response and genomic sequencing: Sharing national experiences from the Covid-19 pandemic, including Tunisia's contributions to SARS-CoV-2 variant identification and tracking.
- Environmental surveillance initiatives: Showcasing efforts in poliovirus monitoring and the assessment of other pathogens, particularly in North Africa, including the Greater Tunis area and Libya.
- Fostering collaboration and One Health approaches: Emphasising synergies between national health institutes, universities, and global partners, while promoting the integration of human, animal, and environmental health through One Health initiatives.
- Addressing operational challenges for surveillance: Identifying common obstacles such as supply chain disruptions and workforce shortages, with calls for enhanced support and training opportunities.
- Data sharing for effective public health action: Underlining the importance of data sharing and collaboration with decision-makers to improve public health strategies and outbreak response.
- Advancing wastewater surveillance techniques: Exploring methods for targeted pathogen detection and the integration of advanced sequencing technologies.
- Developing standardised and cost-effective models: Highlighting the need for standardised protocols and cost-effective methods for pathogen detection through wastewater surveillance.