Although the federal government wants to expand the system, projects to monitor corona in wastewater are stalling in Hesse.
At the turn of the year, sampling was stopped at most locations.
According to the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs, it is not yet clear what will happen next.
The leading researcher in this field is "in the meantime more or less disillusioned", as Prof. Susanne Lackner, Professor of Water and Environmental Biotechnology at the Technical University (TU) Darmstadt, told the German Press Agency.
Actually, the systematic monitoring of Corona should be firmly established as part of the "pandemic radar".
Various indicators are compiled there to monitor how the pandemic is developing.
The Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Environment Agency are currently setting up the system and expanding the number of locations.
25 sewage treatment plants in Germany are currently supplying data, the target is 170. Ten locations are planned in Hesse, “covering around 40 percent of the Hessian population”, as reported by the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Projects expired at the end of the year
So far, the only thing that is certain is that Büdingen will be there, where samples have already been taken and analyzed twice a week.
It is not clear which other nine sewage treatment plants will take part.
"First of all, the framework conditions of the federal project must be laid down," says Wiesbaden.
According to the ministry, the integration of all new locations should “in all likelihood be completed by spring 2023”.
Projects co-financed from Hessian funds expired at the end of the year, as the ministry confirmed: With "HeNaSARS-V", the TU Darmstadt had examined the frequency and type of corona viruses at eleven locations: three in Frankfurt, two in Wiesbaden, plus Hanau, Fulda, Kassel, Marburg, Giessen and Darmstadt.
Logistical processes and data transfer were also tested in the research project.
The federal project "ESI-CorA" in Büdingen, co-financed by the EU, will run until February 2023.
“The only thing missing is the political will”
A year and a half ago, great hopes were attached to wastewater monitoring.
In September 2021, Science Minister Angela Dorn (Greens) spoke of "a new phase in the fight against the pandemic", meaning that Hesse could "rely on a new, highly effective instrument".
At the time, Lackner said: "The technology is mature, the methods are established - the system could be established at any time.
The only thing missing is the political will.”
When Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced that wastewater monitoring would be included in the pandemic radar, she believed she recognized this will.
"Unfortunately, in my opinion, Germany is once again standing in its own way when it comes to implementing or expanding the concept."
"Therefore, only very few sewage treatment plants have been included in the pandemic radar so far, because the data is not available accordingly." The continuation of the measurements has not yet been finally clarified in many federal states "and therefore locations may be omitted again for the time being".