Urban wastewater and lakes as habitats for bacteria and potential vectors for pathogens : (IRG III LFV INFECTIONS 21) Water is essential to life and thus an essential resource. However freshwater resources are limited and their maintenance is crucial. Pollution with chemicals and pathogens through urbanization and a growing population impair the quality of freshwater. Furthermore water can serve as vector for the transmission of pathogens resulting in water borne illness. The Interdisciplinary Research Group III – Water of the Leibniz alliance project INFECTIONS‘21 investigated water as a hub for pathogens focusing on Clostridioides difficile and avian influenza A viruses that may be shed into the water. Another aim of this study was to characterize the bacterial communities in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of the capital Berlin Germany to further assess potential health risks associated with wastewater management practices. Bacterial communities of WWTP inflow and effluent differed significantly. The proportion of fecal enteric bacteria was relatively low and OTUs related to potential enteric pathogens were largely removed from inflow to effluent. [...]