The ability to scale and standardise the approach was demonstrated internationally with the SCORE project in 2010 to monitor illicit drugs (). Many countries have now established local, regional, and national networks for WBE studying a range of biomarkers. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has seen a significant growth of deployment in WBE worldwide . The necessity of a surveillance tool to monitor the rapid spread of infections in a community, particularly where many individuals remain asymptomatic, highlighted WBE as a reliable and cost-effective alternative to mass testing . WBE as a public health tool has clear advantages; it not only provides anonymous population-wide data but is also relatively inexpensive and gives rapid results. In the case of AMR, analysis of AA residues in wastewater can inform on consumption within the community. This can be valuable where prescription data is not easily obtainable, or where AAs are available over-the-counter or online. Complimentary to the analysis of AAs, the analysis of resistance genes or co-factors (constituents in wastewater that can co-select for resistance) can also provide key information on the presence of resistant bacterial communities in wastewater. The ability of WBE to give rapid results provides the potential for rapid responses. In the case of AMR, WBE also holds to the promise of evaluating the effectiveness of antimicrobial policy. However, WBE is not without its challenges. Estimation of population sizes and biomarker suitability pose problems, and remain an active area of research ).