Water Quality and Water Pollution in Time of COVID-19: Positive and Negative Repercussions

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the new COVID-19 disease a pandemic. Most countries responded with a lockdown to reduce its effects, which brought beneficial consequences to the environment in many regions, but the pandemic also raised a series of challenges. This review proposes an assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic positive and negative impacts on water bodies on different continents. By applying a search protocol on the Web of Science platform, a scientific bank of 35 compatible studies was obtained out of the 62 open-access articles that were initially accessible. Regarding the positive impacts, the SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in sewage waters is a useful mechanism in the promptly exposure of community infections and, during the pandemic, many water bodies all over the world had lower pollution levels. The negative impacts are as follows: SARS-CoV-2 presence in untreated sewage water amplifies the risk to human health; there is a lack of adequate elimination processes of plastics, drugs, and biological pollution in wastewater treatment plants; the amount of municipal and medical waste that pollutes water bodies increased; and waste recycling decreased. Urgent preventive measures need to be taken to implement effective solutions for water protection.

Automated summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative impacts on water bodies. On the positive side, monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in sewage water has proven to be useful in quickly identifying community infections, and pollution levels in many water bodies around the world have decreased during the pandemic. On the negative side, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated sewage water amplifies the health risk, there is a lack of proper elimination processes for plastics, drugs, and biological pollution in wastewater treatment plants, an increase in municipal and medical waste pollution in water bodies, and a decrease in waste recycling.