Objectives: 

• To assess the value of the technical platforms developed within Aquavalens to enhance the development of Water Safety Plans (WSP).
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the platforms, through a toolbox of indicators to act as early critical monitoring points in a preventive management systems within the framework of the WSP.
• To synthesize the lessons learned from the evaluation and implementation into the existing WSP frameworks.

Del 13.1  Indicators to evaluate impact from Aquavalens on water safety plans and improved water safety.

Del 13.2  Performance of Aquavalens in improving WSP and water safety.   

Del 13.3  Improved Water Safety Plans and the wider impact with Aquavalens. 

Del13.4   Water Safety Plan and Aquavalens.

Objectives

• To determine the relationship between climate variables and presence of pathogens (and indicators) in water, re-analysing results from pathogens obtained in WPs 10 to 12 with simultaneously collected climate data.
• To conduct (in collaboration with WP11) a prospective epidemiological study of the health of people reliant on small supplies and its relationship to the presence of microbial markers in their water supply.
• To review quantitative microbial risk assessments of risks associated with European Water Supplies in the light of new data on the concentrations of enteric pathogens in European from this study.
• To develop a series of emergence scenarios that could be consistent with a future appearance of new pathogen threats to European drinking water supplies and food safety systems and model the impact of different technological responses to its control.
• To consider the potential value of the technologies developed within the project in the response to bio-terrorist attack against drinking water systems.

Del 14.1  Report on modelling of the impact of climate change on risk to European drinking water.

Del 14.2  Report on health risks and contaminated drinking water in Europe.

Del 14.3  Report on the role of molecular methods in the control of emergent waterborne disease.

Objectives

• To evaluate the environmental impact and sustainability of the developed technologies and/or platforms in relation to the carbon footprint with the aim when possible of reaching carbon neutrality.
• To assess the potential economic gains for the EU public health from the application of the developed technologies and/or platforms and those derived from potential savings from other sources. The economic gains for the water and food industry considering different scenarios (related to size of the companies and the development status of the countries) will also be determined.
• To evaluate cost-benefit and feasibility of applying specific technologies and/or platforms in developing country settings.
• To strengthen Europe’s global leadership on the health water related risk by engaging EU institutions (EU Commission) and a wider range of international players such as WHO, IWA etc. and other stakeholders, who can directly benefit from the key deliverables of the project.

D15.1 Report on the environmental impact and the carbon footprint of the different developed platforms

D15.2 Report on derived cost from food and water borne infections (European scenarios) and public health

D15.3 Report on the feasibility of the application of the platforms in developing countries

D15.4 Report on the specific leadership role that Europe can take on the health

water related risk. 

Carbon Footprint

As part of the objectives of the AQUAVALENS project, the environmental impact from the point of view of sustainability is evaluated through the analysis of the Carbon Footprint (CFP) of the newly developed technologies/platforms for waterborne pathogens detection.

The Carbon Footprint accounts for the total emissions of greenhouse gases caused directly or indirectly by an activity or product in its whole Life Cycle. Therefore, it is a measure of Climate Change impact since it is expressed in kg of CO₂ equivalents, so it indicates the warming effect of all the set of GHG emitted taking as reference the potential impact of the carbon dioxide. The CFP is calculated using internationally recognized standards (PAS 2050:2011, ISO 14067:2013, Greenhouse Gas Protocol). The life cycle of the novel platforms is divided in two main stages: production and use.

Regarding the first stage, the platforms production entails the raw materials extraction, transport and manufacturing of the platforms by cluster 2 partners. The evaluation of this phase is based on the information gathered from three AQUAVALENS partners that develop three different platforms: two real time PCR kits (GPS and Ceeram) and one on-line detection platform (MicroLAN).  

To evaluate the CFP of the second stage, the use phase, we are gathering information from end-users partners that are testing these platforms in field (cluster 3 partners), including: sampling campaign, with particular reference to the transport; consumption of materials and consumables and use of equipment during laboratory work; and management of the wastes produced in all these tasks. Once this stage had been finished, the total CFP of the AQUAVALENS novel technologies can be computed and the environmental implications of their use can be evaluated and compared to conventional methodologies. ***this part is still underway***