Delta Life Nr. 4 September 2015

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DELTARES, SEPTEMBER 2015
LEARNING MORE ABOUT
WATER SYSTEMS AND HEALTH
BY WORKING TOGETHER
WATER AND HEALTH
THREE REASONS TO TAKE
A CLOSER INTEREST
Diseases often spread through water in ditches, rivers and lakes. Even so,
health factors often get overlooked in flood risk management. Three reasons
why managers should take a closer interest.
BY JOACHIM ROZEMEIJER
For more information:
and
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One child dies every twenty
seconds in a developing country
because of infected water.
It is generally known that rivers are
used as open sewers and waste
dumps in developing countries:
currently, a child dies every twenty
seconds because of infected water.
Changes in the water regime can
make problems worse. For example
in Cameroon, where the numbers of
a species of snail with an infectious
parasite increased rapidly after large-
scale deforestation. Investigating the
interaction between health and the
water system can both cut costs and
prevent suffering.
Contamination through water is
also a risk inWestern countries.
In Toledo in the USA, half a million
people were unable to drink water
from the tap in the summer of 2014
because of the risk of disease. It didn’t
take long before supplies of bottled
water were exhausted and everyone
was forced to go outside the city to
find drinking water. The problem was
a toxic plague of algae caused by
excessive levels of fertiliser in the lake
that was also used as a reservoir for
drinking water. Another threat is the
resistance acquired by bacteria in
waste water and in treatment plants
to the cocktail of medicines in sewage
water. The resistant bacteria can then
spread through the water system.
Climate change, urbanisation,
deforestation and the rising
population are exacerbating
the risks.
More and more people are living and
working close to one another in flat
deltas. Global warming is not only
leading to more flooding, it also makes
water systems more susceptible to
toxic algal blooms. Tackling floods
by storing water means that more
water is retained in cities. That leads
in turn to an additional risk of infection
because it attracts more mosquitoes,
which spread disease. When there are
floods, the spread of disease through
dirty water is often the biggest problem
after the disaster itself.
The first steps to study the
relationship between changes in
water systems and health have
been taken only recently. Deltares
is contributing to this research
effort by supplying its knowledge
of water systems, water quality
and the spread of disease through
water. Important partners in the
Netherlands include the National
Institute of Public Health and
the Environment (RIVM), KWR
Watercycle Research Institute,
Wageningen University and
Radboud University. Outside the
Netherlands, Deltares is at work in
places including Indonesia, where we
are studying water-related health
risks with the Bandung Institute of
Technology and the University of
Bandung.
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