Waterborne Diseases

Waterborne diseases are a HUGE problem facing the world today, many in developing countries. Not only is it a problem to find clean water (as 2.4 billion people are estimated to have no basic access to drinking water sources according to the World Health Organization), but much of the water available is so contaminated that 3.4 million + adults and children die every year because of diseases from this hazardous drinking water. Most of these diseases are linked to areas of no sewage treatment or mismanaged sewage disposal facilities as microorganism contaminants cause intestinal diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery.

Water-borne diseases are the second leading cause of death in children below the age of five years.

Childhood mortality rates from acute respiratory infections is first.

Limitations of water resources and the fact that much of our remaining water is contaminated makes it very difficult to reach our full potential for sustaining life around the globe. Water plays a HUGE role in our every day life including: 

• cleaning
• drinking
• travel
• production of goods
• keeping living organisms alive and healthy
• etc.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterdistribution.html

Earth is a BIG waterbody with 70% of its surface covered with water. This may seem a lot, but the amount of freshwater is a bigger concern. According to Coleridge:

• 97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water
• Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use.
• < 1% of the world's fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.

Available renewable fresh water:

• Fossil ground water can be tapped but is non-replenishable.
• Terrestrial replenishable fw supply (RFWS land).
• RFWSland = ppte on land.
• Pland = evapotranspiration from the land (ETland) and runoff to sea (R).
• Estimates of annual runoff range from 33,500 to 47,00 km^3

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html

Water is so vitally important and I wish more people were aware of how we are taking it for granted. It is a natural resource, but it is also finite. As we are taking it out of the hydrologic cycle, the availability significantly decreases. In 1972, the Clean Water Act was passed because we realized that we needed to protect our water resources, but are we still doing enough to act sustainably? I believe we are using it "consumptively", where water is taken from it's original source (lake or river) and moved to agricultural irrigation fields, etc. I could go on and on about agricultural run-off, but I will leave that for a later post. 

Water in bottles is another subject as well, but it is also a big problem in wasting water. If you look all the way down in my "Hazardous Wastes" blog you will see a photo describing the process and dangers of water bottles, but here is a short part of it:

http://www.onlineeducation.net/bottled_water

We need to be more sustainable with our water usage because there will be wars over water control and we can indeed conserve this resource with better planning, management, and technology. Coleridge also mentions a list of steps we need to prioritize when figuring out how to manage water.

1. Basic human needs for water should be fully acknowledged as a top international priority.
2. Water-related diseases, including Guinea worm, diarrhea, onchocerciasis, malaria, and typhoid should be brought under control.
3. Agricultural water should be efficiently used and allocated.
4. Basic ecosystem water needs should be identified and met.
5. Serious water-related conflicts should be resolved through formal negotiations.

Many water sources have been contaminated with heavy metals from industrial waste, pesticides from surface runoff, chemicals from agriculture, etc. These stay in the environment for a long time and bioaccumulate in the food web (example: mercury). Severe diseases occur from consumption of these toxic chemicals, as well as cancer. Many problems result from having bad water supplies including the E. Coli bacteria. 

http://www.allianceforthelostboys.com/health-handout.html

Also:

Cryptosporidiosis: In the past two decades, in many regions of the world, including the United States, a common water related diarrhea disease that is increasingly been recognized as a major public health problem is cryptosporidiosis, caused by a microscopic parasite (Cryptosporidium). It is generally found in drinking water, swimming pools and recreational streams that have been accidentally contaminated by human fecal wastes.

Giardia: Another increasingly common water related diarrhea disease around the world, including the United States, is giardiasis, which is caused by a one-celled microscopi parasite (Giardia). Similar to the spread of cryptosporidium in the environment, giardia is transmitted by discharges of fecal wastes into water, food, soil and other surfaces, and therefore the preventative hygienic measures that are being recommended to lower the overall incidence of the former disease applies here equally well.

Malaria: One of the most serious vector-borne diseases in the world today is malaria. It occurs in many tropical regions of the world, such as Central and South Africa, Hispaniola, the sub-Saharan region of Africa (where the largest incidences are annually reported), Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Oceania. It is a water related disease, since it is caused by four subspecies of microscopic parasites (Plasmodium) carried by female Anopheles mosquitoes that breed its larvae in stagnant waters and storage reservoirs in warm climates.

Malarial Incidence: Each year, 300 to 500 million people contract malaria worldwide, of which 1.5 to 2.7 million people die from the disease, the overwhelming majority (90%) of them children below the age of 5 years. Since the 1970s, there has been a resurgence of malaria in different regions of the world, partially due to the rapid formation of resistant parasites to malaria preventing drugs, such as chloroquine and other quinoline products. In addition, significant increases in the incidence of malaria in recent years have been caused by the construction of dams, intensified irrigation systems and other water related projects, which have become new mosquito breeding sites in many developing regions.

Schistosomiasis: It is estimated that 200 million people worldwide are infected with schistosomiasis, with another 2 billion people in some 74 countries are at elevated risk from this debilitating water-borne disease. Schistosomiasis (sometimes known as bilharzias) is caused by parasitic worms (Schistosoma) when human beings come into contact with certain types of snails that harbor these parasites in contaminated fresh 4 water. The main factor in the proliferation of this disease is when human fecal wastes are dumped in fresh water sources.

The problems of water pollution and drinking water contamination in the two North America countries tend to be similar in nature, since the types of industrial and municipal discharges, disposal of hazardous wastes and agricultural runoffs are not markedly different. The chemical and biological contaminants in drinking water that have serious potential impacts on human health are numerous, according to www.freedrinkingwater.com.

The thing that bothers me is that this problem is EASY TO SOLVE! Sure, it will take time, but the methods to reduce these diseases are not expensive and we already have the answer. 

Read more at WaterborneDiseases.

http://holidays.slides.kaboose.com/143-top-ten-mother-s-day-movies/2

Water contamination has been a HUGE issue and has been the focus of many movies/documentaries such as Erin Brockovich, who has helped many people resolve issues concerning ground water contamination. The movie starring Julia Roberts, concerning her story is about the toxic waste leaking into the groundwater of Hinkley. Another big film starring John Travolta is called A Civil Action, which deals with the tragic true story of another town where the industry inconsiderately continued to dump toxic waste into the nearby river, which entered the groundwater and harmed many of the inhabitants. If you haven't seen either, I would highly recommend them.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.14.99/civilaction-9902.html

Read More:
Water-Related Diseases
http://www.lenntech.com/library/diseases/diseases/waterborne-diseases.htm
Water Scarcity
http://www.millionface.com/l/water-and-thirst-importance-and-scarcity-you-and-me/
World Resource Institute
http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/176