The COVID-19 pandemic is the first to occur during the age of affordable, high-throughput molecular diagnostics and next generation sequencing, allowing wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 to be pursued extensively as a supplement to clinical surveillance. This presentation examines past efforts to use wastewater for monitoring infectious agents and to track the promotion and dispersal of antibiotic resistance, and provides an overview of COVID-19 wastewater monitoring from a global and local perspective – covering its development, achievements and challenges. The presentation concludes by speculating upon the future of this rapidly advancing field and the societal and technical obstacles that will need to be overcome for this type of wastewater monitoring to reach its full potential.