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Background One Health is the integrative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. As the human population continues to increase across the world, the interface of people, animals and the environment becomes more significant and impactful. For the past few years, the One Health concept has brought together experts in the areas of animal and human health. It has provided a new synthesis for public health and veterinary communities across the world. One Health initiatives have majorly focused on veterinarians, medical doctors and public health professionals. However, the Environmental Health profession has a major role to play in One Health activities based on Uganda's experiences. Contribution of environmental health to One Health In Uganda, Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) carry out several duties that contribute towards One Health. These include: inspection of animals before slaughter (antemortem) and meat in abattoirs (postmortem); inspection of meat in butcheries; destruction of condemned meat; disease surveillance; outbreak investigation and control of zoonoses; control of vectors and vermin such as rats, fleas, mosquitoes and monkeys; health education on pertinent issues such as vaccination of dogs; and food safety including meat and milk. EHPs also play an important role in prevention, detection and abatement of microbial and chemical pollution of land, air and water sources that have created new threats to the health of both animals and humans. EHPs carry out house to house inspections on water, sanitation and hygiene hence involved in abating nuisances at households that could pose a threat to public health. Such threats could be emerging from the environment including animals. Enforcement of public health legislation is also a key contribution of EHPs to One Health in Uganda. Conclusion EHPs play an important role in disease surveillance, prevention and control. Therefore, Environmental Health professionals should be involved as stakeholders in local, national and global One Health initiatives., Highlights • One Health approach advocates the integration of multiple disciplines at all levels. • It stresses that humans, animals, and environment health are all interconnected. • One health challenges are on the increase especially in developing countries. • Environmental health practitioners play many roles which contribute to One Health. • Environmental health practitioners should therefore be involved as stakeholders in all One Health initiatives.

In wastewater systems in Kampala, Uganda, microbial contamination has increased over the past two decades. Those people who live or work along the Nakivubo channel and wetland and those who use the recreational areas along the shores of Lake Victoria are at an elevated risk of gastrointestinal infections. A quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) was applied for five population groups, characterised by different levels of exposure to wastewater in the Nakivubo area, namely: (i) slum dwellers at risk of flooding; (ii) children living in these slum settlements; (iii) workers maintaining the drainage system or managing faecal sludge (sanitation workers); (iv) urban farmers; and (v) swimmers in Lake Victoria. The QMRA was based on measured concentrations of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Ascaris spp. eggs in wastewater samples. Published ratios between measured organism and pathogenic strains of norovirus, rotavirus, Campylobacter spp., pathogenic E. coli, pathogenic Salmonella spp., Cryptosporidium spp. and Ascaris lumbricoides were used to estimate annual incidence of gastrointestinal illness and the resulting disease burden. The QMRA estimated a total of 59,493 disease episodes per year across all 18,204 exposed people and an annual disease burden of 304.3 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Incidence estimates of gastrointestinal disease episodes per year were highest for urban farmers (10.9) and children living in slum communities (8.3), whilst other exposed groups showed lower incidence (, Microbial Risk Analysis, 4, ISSN:2352-3522