Environmental Parasitology

Dear Colleagues,

For nearly a century, both wastewater and water treatment have had a similar and clear objectives, which is the protection of public health by the reduction and disinfection of pathogens in the human water cycle, the so-called barrier approach to public health. However, with emphasis in wastewater treatment increasingly focused on environmental protection during the 1970s, the concept of pathogen control became a secondary, almost forgotten, objective. The failure to set microbial emission standards on effluents discharged from wastewater treatment plants is a reflection of this. The introduction of universal drinking water quality standards at about the same time, incorporating physico-chemical standards, also meant that water treatment priorities and practices were altered, with a greater reliance on water disinfection to deal with any pathogen threat, which has led to some notable treatment failures, resulting in major pathogen outbreaks. Today, new technologies are offering exciting possibilities to deal with pathogens more effectively.
However, the threat to our water supplies from waterborne pathogens, including plant and livestock pathogens, is greater than ever. New pathogens are constantly emerging and the threat from plasmid transfer during wastewater treatment increasing antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens, global travel, intensive agriculture, and proliferation of rural housing have all have increased the pressure on our water treatment plants in terms of pathogen reduction. The use of indicator organisms has proven to be unreliable, especially when predicting the presence of other pathogens, such as the protozoan pathogens and viruses. While the adoption of water security and safety plans have made a significant difference in the control of pathogens, a rapidly growing global family, increasing water demand that is leading to water scarcity and an increasing reliance on water reuse, we are at critical levels of risk from waterborne pathogens.
You are invited to contribute to help create a unique dialogue that aims to explore the problems and propose the solutions to supplying safe, pathogen-free, drinking water in a rapidly changing society and planet.

Prof. Dr. Panagiotis Karanis
Guest Editor

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