WATER BORNE DISEASES

Water, Sanitation and Health

Water, Sanitation and Health & Health Risk Management 1

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Contents

Water, Sanitation and Health

1. Water-Borne Diseases
2. Effects of Water-Borne Diseases
3. Conclusion
Health Risk Management
1. A Multi-Barrier Approach
2. Transmission Routes
3. Critical Questions
4. Mitigating Health Risks
References

Water, Sanitation and Health & Health Risk Management 2

 Water, Sanitation and Health

Water, Sanitation and Health & Health Risk Management

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1. Water-Borne Diseases
Sources of Diseases

• Pathogenic microorganisms in contaminated water

• Lack of access to adequate (safe) water sources or
water point-of-use water treatments
• But also lack of sanitation and poor hygiene are
responsible for the transmission of diseases
• Water often contaminated due to inadequate
sanitation and waste water treatment: faeces of an
infected person enters the water untreated
• Some estimated 884 million people worldwide lack Poor sanitation leads
access to improved water supply and 2.6 billion to discharge of
sewage directly into
people lack access to improved sanitation the environment.
(WHO/UNICEF 2010) Source: WaterAid (2013)

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1. Water-Borne Diseases
Diseases
Diarrhea (multiple liquid bowl movements per day; this
loss of fluid can lead to death)
Cholera (infection in the small intestine leading to
diarrhoea and vomiting and thus to dehydration)
Typhoid (fever, headache, pain and diarrhoea)
And several other parasitic infections (e.g.
schistosomiasis, guinea worm, ...)
Most significant is the persistence and wide distribution of
diarrhea throughout the developing world – an effect of
inadequate water supply and sanitation.

Dirty water causes more deaths per

year than armed conflicts.
Water, Sanitation and Health & Health Risk Management Source: WSSCC (2007) 5
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2. Effects of Water-Borne Diseases

School Absence

Absence of 443 Mio school days each year

(BORKOWSKY 2006) due to water-borne
diseases
• Strong negative impact on nutrition,
health and learning capacities especially
of children
• Hurts prospects for future earnings and
makes continuing poverty more likely

Adequate sanitation can reduce

water-borne diseases of children.
Source: WHO (2012)

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2. Effects of Water-Borne Diseases

Severe Sickness and Death

• Parasitic helminthes infections: severe consequences e.g. cognitive

impairment, massive dysentery, anemia and death of around 9400
people every year
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, schistosomiasis kills more than 200,000 people
every year
• Acute diarrhea, as occurs in cholera, if left untreated can cause
death within a day or less

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Breaking Economic Development

• Large-scale death and poor health also act as a brake on economic
development
• Unsafe water and inadequate sanitation especially impacts the poor
(About 2/3 of people without access to a protected water source live
on less than US$2 a day )
• Adequate water supplies and sanitation are often key step out of
poverty

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3. Conclusion
Clean Water and Sanitation are intertwined with more than health!

Due to the interconnectedness between water, sanitation, health and poverty, lack of safe water supply and
proper sanitation has not only an impact on health, but consequently on education, ability to work and thus
economic development.
Thus both adequate drinking water and sanitation are crucial for the health of human and thus their physical
and economical development (school visits and escaping the poverty trap).
An approach to reduce health risk due to water/sanitation-borne diseases can be found in the following section:

Health Risk Management

Water, Sanitation and Health & Health Risk Management 9