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Waterborne diseases
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General Information

Water-borne diseases are any illness caused by drinking water contaminated by human or animal
faeces, which contain pathogenic microorganisms.
The full picture of water-associated diseases is complex for a number of reasons. Over the past
decades, the picture of water-related human health issues has become increasingly
comprehensive, with the emergence of new water-related infection diseases and the re-
emergence of ones already known. Data are available for some water-, sanitation- and hygiene-
related diseases (which include salmonellosis, cholera, shigellosis), but for others such malaria,
schistosomiasis or the most modern infections such legionellosis or SARS CoV the analyses
remain to be done.
The burden of several disease groups can only partly be attributed to water determinants. Even
where water plays an essential role in the ecology of diseases, it may be hard to pinpoint the
relative importance of aquatic components of the local ecosystems.

Dimension of the problem

In developing countries four-fifths of all the illnesses are caused by water-borne diseases, with
diarrhoea being the leading cause of childhood death.

The global picture of water and health has a strong local dimension with some 1.1 billion people
still lacking access to improved drinking water sources and some 2.4 billion to adequate
sanitation. Today we have strong evidence that water-, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases
account for some 2,213,000 deaths annually and an annual loss of 82,196,000 Disability
Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (R. Bos, Dec. 2004).

WHO estimates indicate that worldwide over 2 billion people are infected with schistosomes and
soil transmitted helminthes and 300 million of these suffer serious illness as a result.
Malaria kills over a million people every year, and a large percentage of them are under five as
well, mainly in Africa South of the Sahara. In 2001 the estimated global burden of malaria
amounted to 42.3 million DALYs, constituting 10 % of Africas overall disease burden. Malaria
causes at least 396.8 million cases of acute illness each year. Pregnant women are the main adult
risk group. As one of the major public health problems in tropical countries, it has been claimed
that malaria has reduced economic growth in African countries by 1.3 % each year over the past
30 years (*).

An estimated 246.7 million people worldwide are infected by schistomiasis, and of these 20
million suffer severe consequences of the infection, while 120 million suffer milder symptoms.
An estimated 80% of transmission takes place in Africa south of the Sahara (*).

Diarrhoea occurs worldwide and causes 4% of all deaths and 5% of the health loss to disability.

In Bangladesh alone, some 35 million people are exposed, on a daily basis, to elevated levels of
arsenic in their drinking water, which will ultimately threaten their health and shorten their life
expectancy.

After the Tsunami attack in Asia on Sunday the 26th of December 2004 people faced the threat of
water borne diseases linked to flooding, like Shigellosis, Cholera, Hepatitis A, Leptospirosis,
Typhoid Fever, Malaria and Dengue fever.

Source 'Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report', section 2.2, WHO 2000
Transmission
Water borne diseases spread by contamination
of drinking water systems with the urine and
faeces of infected animal or people.

This is likely to occur where public and private

drinking water systems get their water from
surface waters (rain, creeks, rivers, lakes etc.),
which can be contaminated by infected animals
or people. Runoff from landfills, septic fields,
sewer pipes, residential or industrial
developments can also sometimes contaminate
surface water.

This has been the cause of many dramatic

outbreaks of faecal-oral diseases such as
cholera and typhoid. However, there are many
other ways in which faecal material can reach
the mouth, for instance on the hands or on
contaminated food. In general, contaminated
food is the single most common way in which
people become infected.
The germs in the faeces can cause the diseases by even slight contact and transfer. This
contamination may occur due to floodwaters, water runoff from landfills, septic fields, and sewer
pipes.

The following picture shows the faecal-oral routes of diseases transmission.

The only way to break the continued transmission is to improve the peoples hygienic behaviour
and to provide them with certain basic needs: drinking water, washing and bathing facilities and
sanitation. Malaria transmission is facilitated when large numbers of people sleep outdoors
during hot weather, or sleep in houses that have no protection against invading mosquitoes.
Malaria mosquitoes, tropical black flies, and bilharzias snails can all be controlled with efficient
drainage because they all depend on water to complete their life cycles.

Click here for more information about contagion by pathogenic microorganisms.

Prevention

Clean water is a pre-requisite for reducing the spread of water-borne diseases. It is well
recognised that the prevalence of water-borne diseases can be greatly reduced by provision of
clean drinking water and safe disposal of faeces.
Water is disinfected to kill any pathogens that may be present in the water supply and to prevent
them from growing again in the distribution systems. Disinfection is then used to prevent the
growth of pathogenic organisms and to protect public health and the choice of the disinfect
depends upon the individual water quality and water supply system.
Without disinfection, the risk from waterborne disease is increased.
The two most common methods to kill microorganisms in the water supply are: oxidation with
chemicals such as chlorine, chlorine dioxide or ozone, and irradiation with Ultra-Violet (UV)
radiation.

Source:
The United Nations World Water Development Report 'Water for people Water for life' p.102
and following.

Contact us for more information about water disinfection and treatment.

Or check the following links.

More information on water disinfection?:

Introduction water disinfection Necessity water treatment History of drinking water treatment

What is water disinfection? Necessity of drinking water disinfection History of water

disinfection Waterborne diseases Factors that influence disinfection Conditions of water
disinfection Regulation drinking water disinfection EU USA

Swimming pool treatment Swimming pool pollutions Swimming pool disinfection Swimming
pool disinfection & health

Cooling tower water Cooling tower water pollutions Cooling tower water disinfection Cooling
tower water legislation

Chemical disinfectants Chlorine Sodium hypochlorite Chloramines Chlorine dioxide Copper

silver ionization Hydrogen peroxide Bromine Peroxone Peracetic acid

Disinfection byproducts Types of disinfection byproducts Research on health effects of

disinfection byproducts