Antimicrobial resistance

Research Scientist

Research Scientist

Senior Research Scientist, PhD

In mid-April, the three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance announced the results from the AquaticPollutants Joint Transnational Call. NIVA are happy to be partner in two of the projects funded.

In the CORNELIA project, NIVA together with its two industrial partners tests and verifies innovative technical solutions for targeted removal of antimicrobial resistance from wastewater at hospitals (at the source) and at wastewater treatment plants (before discharge to the environment).

The goal of the DUWA project is to treat wastewater discharges from hospitals to minimize the spreading of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to the environment and to reduce the emission of micropollutants. NIVA assists the start-up company Sustaintech AS in the development and verification of ozonation to remove antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) in wastewater decentrally at a Norwegian hospital.

We need to improve our understanding of the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in surface waters, particularly downstream of urban waste water treatment plants. However, at present there is no European overview of the presence of AMR in surface waters. This project will develop a basic approach and methodology for a European scale AMR monitoring of surface waters.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest health challenges of our time with serious economic consequences for society globally. The goal of HOTMTAS is to design, implement and assess modular advanced solutions for effective and decentralized wastewater treatment at selected point sources of AMR emergence, such as hospitals and nursing homes.

PAIRWISE aims to advance knowledge of antimicrobial resistance as a pollution in aquatic environments, wildlife, and livestock. PAIRWISE focuses on dispersal and dynamics of antibiotic resistant bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes and antibiotics in aquatic environments affected by wastewater treatment plants.

Increasing water scarcity is one of the biggest challenges worldwide. The reuse of the effluents of wastewater treatment plants constitutes a significant and constantly available water resource that can be used for purposes such as irrigation. However, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants face an increasing amount of emerging pollutants.

SIREN (Integrated system for simultaneous recovery of energy, organics and nutrients and generation of valuable products from municipal wastewater) will develop a system that recovers energy, organics and nutrients from municipal wastewater while simultaneously generating valuable products.

The WatRes project investigates the occurrence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistance genes from the Hias wastewater treatment plant to Lake Mjøsa, a main source of drinking water and irrigation.

The section conducts research on topics that contribute to sustainable development of cities and towns, and infrastructure. We study the problems, processes and solutions for handling drinking water, wastewater, and storm water in urban areas, in a changing climate.