Newsletter 04 May-June 2019

The Water JPI hold its 14^th Governing Board meeting in Berlin on 23^rd May 2019. The meeting was hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with the support of Project Management Jülich (PtJ). The Governing Board meeting facilitated discussion on the sustainability of the Initiative, including exchanges on the budget for future years, and potential impacts on planned activities and membership criteria. The role of Joint Programming Initiatives within the context of the next European Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, was also addressed during the meeting. A detailed discussion on the Water JPI position with respect to the shaping of Partnerships and a Mission on water was facilitated. This discussion on Horizon Europe was held with contributions from a representative from the European Commission, Panagiotis Balabanis, DG Research and Innovation.

The meeting was also an opportunity to update Governing Board members on on-going activities. In particular, the Governing Board approved the new Policy Brief produced by the 23 experts involved in the Water JPI Knowledge Hub on Contaminants of Emerging Concerns (CECs) and entitled “Contaminants of Emerging Concern - an emerging risk in our waters”. This second Water JPI Policy Brief will be soon available for download on our website. A second International Knowledge Hub on Global Water Challenges in the context of the UN SDGs is currently under development in the frame of the CSA IC4WATER. Following the results of a workshop for the development and setting-up of this second Knowledge Hub, the Governing Board selected the topic on “New water under water scarcity: new sources, treatment, recycling, reuse, water-health-food-energy nexus”. Furthermore, the Governing Board welcomed and approved the German proposal to organise the Water JPI 2020 Conference in the context of the German Presidency of the European Union.

The EPA (Ireland) led a consultative workshop in Berlin on 22nd May 2019 for the members of the Water JPI Governing Board, Scientific Advisory Group and Scientific and Technological Board . There were 34 participants representing 19 countries and the aim of the workshop was to collect feedback and recommendations from the group regarding the new Water JPI Vision 2030 and the structure of the next Strategic Research Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Session one included a presentation by Noreen Layden (EPA) where she provided an overview of the SRIA consultation process completed to date. This included a review of the recommendations and resolutions from previous Governing Board ad Advisory Board meetings and a summary of the joint meeting between Water JPI and FACCE-JPI (Bonn, 2017). The latter sought to identify potential synergies between both SRIAs.  She also provided an update on the public consultation process that included some preliminary results from the online survey and the key messages from the National Consultation Workshops. The Governing Board and Advisory Board were asked to review and comment on the list of Foresight documents to ensure the EPA had a full list of relevant documentation.

Session two was composed of three breakout discussion groups where each group was asked to respond to four key questions: (1) Vision 2030:  What is the Grand Challenge?; (2) Vision 2030: Devising SMART Indicators; (3) SRIA 3.0: Identify the key scientific Themes and (4) Recommendations for semi-structured interviews.  There was a lively discussion between the groups/ participants that culminated in agreement on a draft Vision and new themes that were presented to the Governing Board for consideration at their meeting the next day. The participants were also asked to identify potential candidates for the forthcoming semi-structured interviews. The latter will target sectors and regions that were under represented by the online survey and/or national workshops. The EPA will follow-up with participants in June to identify the candidates and arrange the interviews. EPA Ireland requested assistance from the Governing Board and Advisory Board  should they encounter any translation/ language challenges.

On April 12^th 2019 the funded projects under the 2018 Water JPI Joint Call – Closing the Water Cycle Gap were presented by their coordinators in Stockholm at the Kick-Off meeting. Eighteen transnational projects are funded with a budget of €15.2million including €4.9 million cofunded by the European Commission between 2019 and 2022.  The projects were evaluated by an independent Evaluation Panel of experts. An independent observer followed the evaluation process. The eighteen projects were evaluated as scientifically excellent, covering a wide range of disciplines (from social and economic sciences to natural sciences), and addressing all challenges presented in the call announcement. 55 researchers, Water JPI partners and experts from the Follow-up Group, attended the Kick-Off meeting in Stockholm.

Under the patronage of Cabo Verde, in collaboration with Italy and the FAO, the 1st WASAG International Forum on ‘’Water Scarcity in Agriculture was held in Praia, Capo Verde March 19^th -22^nd 2019. The forum aimed at identifying concrete, practical, innovative and collaborative solutions to address water scarcity in agriculture in a changing climate.  With a focus on Cabo Verde, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and West African countries, the forum highlighted how water scarcity in agriculture can be addressed and turned into an opportunity for sustainable development, food and nutrition security.

The forum was structured around six thematic areas: Water and Migration, Drought Preparedness, Financing Mechanisms, Water and Nutrition, Sustainable Agriculture Water Use and Saline Agriculture. Over 200 people participated in the conference: decision-makers, professionals, scientists and experts from WASAG partners and stakeholders, regional organizations, public and private sectors from different regions of the world with an interest in water scarcity in agriculture.

WASAG has been designed to bring together key players across the globe and across sectors to tackle the collective challenge of using water better in agriculture to ensure food security for all. It is an initiative for partners from all fields and backgrounds to collaborate by supporting countries and stakeholders in their commitments and plans related to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and other relevant plans and programmes.

The collaboration between Water JPI and FACCE-JPI (Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change) through the WaterWorks 2015 ERA-NET was presented by Heather McKhann, Coordinator of FACCE-JPI, in the session on “Financing mechanisms for sustainable management of water resources’’. In this presentation, the concept of joint programming was presented as well as the 2016 call and a sample of funded projects, was given. It offered an opportunity for the two JPIs to increase their visibility on the global scale and to showcase their work.

The Forum also represented an opportunity to foster robust relationships among participants, presenters and institutions for future collaborations on addressing water scarcity in various parts of the planet.  

In a recent study published on Science Advances the team of the Water JPI project - StARE, led by the coordinator Célia Manaia, presented the results of a pioneering European study on the antibiotic resistance prevalence in urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) in seven European countries (Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus, Germany, Finland and Norway) and 12 municipal WWTPs.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) resistance to antibiotics is considered one of the greatest threats to public health worldwide. In Europe, levels of antibiotic resistance in clinical settings, particularly in hospitals, have been monitored for more than a decade and have shown that southern European countries have higher prevalence values ​​than those in the North.  Over the last decades, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have also become an important environmental contaminant, being the potential transmission to humans, for example through recreational activities or food, which has serious potential implications. In urban areas, domestic sewage treatment plants, including hospital sewage, are a major source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria for the environment.

StARE aimed to understand whether the scenario of European distribution of antibiotic resistance in the clinical environment was also observed in raw sewage and in such cases if wastewater treatment would attenuate any differences.  Although wastewater treatment was efficient in the reduction of antibiotic resistance prevalence, the load of resistance was higher in southern countries in comparison to  northern countries. The results illustrated that observations in clinical settings, environmental antibiotic resistance follows an increasing north-to-south gradient of antibiotic resistance prevalence. This was observed in raw sewage not attenuated by wastewater treatment. Factors such as the temperature, precipitation, and dimensions of the UWTP may contribute to the persistence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance to the receptor environment. Another important outcome from this study is the proposed design and implementation of  simplified and low-cost surveillance protocols, based on high-throughput data as the quantification of antibiotic resistance genes instead of the traditional faecal indicators detection. In any case, the surveillance programmes should always consider and be adapted to the different geographical regions.

Global implementation of integrated environmental resistance monitoring programs will be crucial if control measures are to be implemented, if appropriate, adapted in accordance to the different geographic regions.