The stakeholders

Interviews were held with South African and Dutch stakeholders between December 2021 and March 2022.

To maintain their anonymity, neither the names of the stakeholders, nor their positions within the organisations have been mentioned. A total of 12 interviews were held with South African stakeholders and an interview with 5 Dutch stakeholders. An overview of the stakeholders can be found in the table below.

The South African Stakeholders

On 3 December 2021, soon after the identification of Omnicron cases, a virtual presentation was held with the South African Collaboration COVID-19 Environmental Surveillance System (SACCESS) network. This informal network includes a wide range of actors including university researchers, municipal sanitation and public health officials, provincial health departments, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), private laboratories and research councils. It also comprises of participants from five of the nine provinces in South Africa, namely: Eastern Cape (EC), Gauteng Province (GP), Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), North West (NW) and Western Cape (WC), as well as multiple local municipalities. The network was developed as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has since progressed rapidly in the field of wastewater surveillance and WBE.

During their monthly meeting in December, a first draft and the potential of the dashboard as a COVID-19 early warning tool was presented. The meeting was simultaneously used to elicit information from potential stakeholders and current dashboard owners. Several individual interviews were held thereafter to delve further into stakeholders’ needs within a “pandemic” dashboard and the potential of ultimately owning the dashboard or collaborating further.

The Dutch Stakeholders

A meeting with the 5 Dutch stakeholders was held in February 2022.