Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is often seen as an issue faced only in hospitals. An awareness about rising levels of AMR in the near environment and real threat to community health is essential. It has to be realised that community behavioural patterns in antimicrobial usage, disposal and other practices such as sanitation play a very important role in the development and spread of AMR.
The scientific programs on surveillance on AMR genes (ARGs) and Antimicrobial resistant bacteria (ARBs) are conducted on clinical bacterial, veterinary and environmental isolates to understand how the ARGs in each are connected and how they may evolve. The drivers for ARGs and ARBs are many and the relative importance of each driver is still being contested. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human and veterinary healthcare, agriculture; antimicrobial disposal methods from hospitals, manufacturing plants and heavy metals disposal all play a role in driving up AMR dispersal.
The surface and ground waters in the country are an important source of drinking water and a primary route for the transmission of ARGs. Protecting the water bodies from sources of ARGs such as untreated or partially treated raw sewerage, heavy metals from industry effluents, disinfectants, dumping of veterinary and agricultural waste is an important effort. This can be done only in coordination with the community, government policies and implementation mechanisms.
To involve communities and to encourage them to think scientifically, citizen science programs can be very effective. Citizen science is an inclusive approach that engages people in collecting, analysing, and sharing data on scientific phenomena. It democratises science, allowing the community to play an active role in environmental stewardship. Scientists also benefit by increasing the scope of data collection and in addition, get historical and local data on water bodies. This can lead to more robust and informed decision-making.
The Citizen Science 4 Water program was launched on World Water Day on March 22, 2024, by the Director of IIT Madras. It was funded under the alumni Corporate Social Responsibility Funding from “APA Engineering” which gave a grant of Rs 38.61 lakh for two years.
Our research team has engaged with numerous citizen communities and has sampled waters from 11 water bodies in Chennai and its outskirts. The pollution parameters and the presence of faecal coliforms and ARGs in these water samples are analysed and the results are shared with the community. We also conduct stakeholder workshops on developing community-based approaches for lake reclamation and protection.
To scale up the scientific laboratories for robust methodology for pollution parameters, we have identified nine colleges from Chennai, Coimbatore and Thiruchengode and have trained faculty and a cohort of students in these methods. Their methodology will be validated. Further, the students will be given an internship at our laboratory. The students will get an opportunity to learn to analyse and interpret the results from the analysis of water samples. This will help set up robust centres for water testing in the country.
AMR research needs to multifaceted and some challenges that remain are detection of low concentrations of antibiotics in water samples. The changes in microbial diversity and the dominant species in different water samples also needs to be documented and analysed to understand the impact of increasing pollution, changes in the climate and other anthropological activities. Possibly, the game changer in challenging the AMR spread will be the involvement of the community in understanding its impact and driving the research spend towards identifying key drivers and pathways of AMR spread.
Rama Vaidyanathan, is the coordinator of the Citizen Science 4 Water Program, School of Sustainability, IIT - Madras
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth