It was an eclectic gathering: Tribal leaders, an academic, a wastewater facility operator and a healthcare official, all joining forces in the fight against Covid-19.

The spark behind this meeting? A partnership between Tribal communities and Arizona State University, with support from the Pandemic Prevention Institute and The Rockefeller Foundation. Together, the goal is to equip the population with the tools and skills needed to identify harmful pathogens in wastewater, mitigating the impact of Covid-19 and future disease outbreaks.

The partnership includes seven Tribal communities in Arizona, with plans to add another six soon. This is one of the Institute’s ten initial wastewater monitoring projects, supported by a $3.5 million investment, in the U.S., India, Ghana, and Bangladesh.

Over the next nine months, ASU and its partners plan to support the collection of 900 samples from three general locations: Tribal lands’ wastewater access points such as pumping stations that move waste from one elevation to another, wastewater treatment infrastructure such as sewage systems serving community centers and schools on Tribal land, and wastewater treatment plants in towns bordering reservations. These samples will be analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 virus prevalence and concentration, and where permissible, sequenced to identify variants.

“Wastewater monitoring is an efficient way to empower historically underserved communities with health insights. With these data in hand, Tribal leaders, affiliated health systems and community members can better advocate for the resources needed to respond to existing and future disease threats,” said Megan Diamond, a Health Initiative Manager and wastewater surveillance lead at The Rockefeller Foundation. “The Indigenous American population led the way in vaccine uptake, and are already trailblazers with wastewater monitoring.”

Read the full article about wastewater tracking in tribal lands at The Rockefeller Foundation.