Public health surveillance involves gathering relevant data to inform decisions that accomplish the most good for the most people. During a global pandemic, health surveillance activities also have the potential to impact individual rights and create stigma when individuals or communities are identified. It is therefore critical that the highest ethical standards are observed.

The COVID-19 Wastewater Coalition has developed ethics and communications guidance for measuring and reporting signals of SARS-CoV-2 in community wastewater across Canada. The document is based on authoritative guidance from the World Health Organization (2017) on public health surveillance. Canadian Water Network thanks the Coalition’s Public Health Advisory Group, who convened over the summer to inform the development of this living document.

Public health decisions involve difficult choices made in the face of competing interests, and no guidelines can provide absolute rules. Ethics guidance can only articulate the issues that must be considered and weighed in arriving at specific, principled decisions. Although the scientific foundation for wastewater surveillance of COVID-19 is rapidly evolving across the globe (WHO scientific brief – August 2020), there is still much uncertainty concerning the interpretation of specific results. The Coalition’s guidance document will be subject to amendment as more is learned. It is important to note that research conducted by Canadian institutions must comply with ethics policies of Canada’s Tri-Council; the Coalition’s guidance should not be interpreted to supersede these requirements. Additional ethics guidance is also available from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Download the guidance document from the Coalition’s resource webpage.