A promising tool for monitoring community-wide AMR surveillance is wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) serve a well-defined community, capturing all the excretion products of this population. These excretion products contain biomarkers of pathogens, pharmaceuticals and other indicators of population health. Estimates of exposure to pathogens, or consumption of pharmaceuticals, can be made by quantifying these biomarkers in influent (untreated) wastewater, whilst accounting for flow rates and population size. The resulting data complement evidence generated through traditional public health approaches. The concept of analysing drug residues in wastewater to monitor aspects of public health in the community was first put forward by , and validated by Zuccato in 2008 with their study on illicit drug residues .