Waterborne Diseases

Waterborne diseases are conditions caused by pathogenic micro-organisms that are transmitted in water. These diseases can be spread while bathing, washing, drinking water, or by eating food exposed to contaminated water.

• A report by the United Nations says that more than three million people in the world die of water-related diseases due to contaminated water each year, including 1.2 million children.
• In India, over one lakh people die of water-borne diseases annually.
• It is reported that groundwater in one-third of India’s 600 districts is not fit for drinking as the concentration of fluoride, iron, salinity and arsenic exceeds the tolerance levels.
• About 65 million people have been suffering from fluorosis, a crippling disease due to a high amount of fluoride, and five million are suffering from arsenicosis in West Bengal due to high amount of arsenic.
• A World Resources Report says: about 70 per cent of India’s water supply is seriously polluted with sewage effluents.
• The UN reported that India’s water quality is poor - it ranks 120th among 122 nations in terms of quality of water available to its citizens.
• Click for more data on water pollution and it effects in India – Aspire IAS website - Water Resources, AspireIAS website - Water Pollution

Waterborne illnesses have two main causes:

Pollution e.g. dangerous levels of chemicals, nitrates or heavy metals in the water supply due to industrial pollution or the over-use of agricultural chemicals.

Dirt & Contamination - Bacteria, viruses and parasitic organisms invisibly contaminate the water and cause disease. Much of this contamination is through water coming into contact with animal and human waste.

Waterborne diseases such as cholera, acute diarrhoeal diseases, typhoid and viral hepatitis continue to be prevalent in India and have caused 10,738 deaths, over the last five years since 2017. Of this, acute diarrhoeal diseases caused maximum deaths followed by viral hepatitis, typhoid and cholera.

According to ICMR, Annually about 37.7 million Indians are affected by waterborne diseases, 1.5 million children die of diarrhoea and 73 million working days are lost leading to an economic burden of $600 million a year.

Uttar Pradesh has recorded the highest deaths due to diarrhoea followed by West Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed international norms on water quality that are used for regulation and to set standards in developing and developed countries. For detailed analysis visit WHO website.

Some diseases spread through vectors breeding on water:

1) Malaria

Malarial fever is spread by the Plasmodium parasite mosquito that breeds in water bodies like lakes, paddy fish and stagnant water.

Malaria can kill a child who does not have the immunity against the disease.

2) Filariasis

It is a parasitic disease and affects people who live near unsanitary water bodies or sewages.

Filariasis is spread by mosquitoes that breeds in fresh and stagnant water bodies and is the host of the filarial nematode worm. This worm affects humans and leads to elephantitis.

Health policies and programmes directed at waterborne diseases

• The National Health Policy 2017 reaffirms the government’s commitment to reforming the health sector and achieving universal health coverage. It focuses on disease elimination, reduction in mortality and improvement of health services.

• The main strategy to control diseases caused by drinking of contaminated water is provision of safe drinking water. The Government of India supplements the efforts of the states by providing technical and financial assistance under the centrally-sponsored National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) for providing safe and adequate drinking water supply facilities in rural areas of the country.

• The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) provides assistance to state and Union Territory governments to prevent and control waterborne diseases and in investigating outbreaks of such diseases under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

Diseases by type of pathogen

Protozoa

Bacteria

Viruses

Other agents and diseases caused by them:

• Algae- Desmodesmus infection.
• Parasitic worms -Guinea worm disease.

Click to Know more about the diseases.