The city council group Freie Wähler and FÜR Karlsruhe welcomes the publication of the wastewater monitoring in Karlsruhe. In April 2021, the group made a motion that the City Council jointly publish the current infection figures of the 7-day incidence and viral load of Covid-19 in wastewater. With the measurement data on the virus load in the wastewater, there is more precise information on the number of infections in the respective catchment area. These values have been collected in Karlsruhe for some time at the Neureut sewage treatment plant by the Water Technology Center (TZW) and used by the city administration, but not published.
The group welcomes the fact that the request has been complied with and that it is now possible to view an accurate map of the location of the COVID-19 infection on the website of the city of karlsruhe.de/aktuelles/corona and to track current case numbers in the city and district of Karlsruhe. For this purpose, the incidence values are presented in a graph with the figures of the wastewater monitoring. It says, “Measurements in the wastewater influent to the treatment plant will provide a good and realistic overall picture of the incidence of infection in the entire catchment area.”
“We welcome the fact that the city is now being more transparent with the numbers it has had available for some time but has not shared with the public. With the collection of the viral load in the wastewater, we now have a clearer picture of the infection situation and can also react appropriately if necessary. That we use wastewater monitoring and publish the numbers is overdue. This is because we can use the wastewater analysis to predict the development of infections several days before the official case numbers. First the Corona virus shows up in the waste water then a few days later in statistics for testing the citizens”, says group executive Micha Schlittenhardt.
