CROATIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND
COUNTY INSTITUTES OF PUBLIC HEALTH
under the auspice of the Minister of Health,
Assis. Prof. Irena Hrstić, PhD, MD,,
wish to announce the
XXX SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE
WATER AND PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY
with the central theme:
WASTEWATER MONITORING IN SUPPORT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Dear colleagues,
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is my great pleasure and honor to invite you to the 30th Scientific and Professional Conference “Water and Public Water Supply”, which will take place from 6 to 9 October 2026 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia.
This year’s central theme of the Conference is dedicated to wastewater monitoring in support of public health. Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for monitoring population health and emerging public health risks. Although monitoring of poliovirus and drugs detected in wastewater has been carried out for many years, interest in WBS increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when SARS-CoV-2 was monitored in wastewater. Today, the same approach is also being applied to influenza, RSV, and other pathogenic microorganisms. Unlike clinical surveillance, WBS also covers individuals who are asymptomatic or do not seek medical care, thereby providing a more representative picture of the circulation of infectious diseases and other community-level burdens. In this way, WBS strengthens the broader infectious disease surveillance framework, offers valuable insight into patterns and trends in drug consumption and other population behaviors, and complements data generated through other monitoring systems. Findings obtained through WBS should, however, always be interpreted and communicated in conjunction with data from existing surveillance systems. The recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/3019) further underlines the importance of this approach by introducing the requirement to monitor antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in urban wastewater as part of the One Health framework. Moreover, the Directive calls on Member States to strengthen cooperation among relevant stakeholders, identify priority pathogens for wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), implement regular monitoring both under routine conditions and during public health emergencies, and report the collected data to the European Commission.
We warmly invite you to take an active part in the Conference by presenting scientific and professional papers related to the central theme, as well as address other topics of interest to professionals and researchers working in the field of water and public water supply.
We look forward to welcoming you to Biograd na Moru!
Magdalena Ujević Bošnjak, PhD, research associate
Chair of the Organizing and Scientific Committee
Preuzmite datoteke First announcement