Water for the Ages

Many in the United States are acquainted with the all-too-horrible effects of flooding, especially after Hurricane Katrina, numerous other flooding events, and recently, the deluge on the Chehalis River of Southwest Washington.

Rampant in the media during these times of floods in the US are deaths, displacements, economic losses, and causes associated with the flooding. Less common immediately after a flood event, however, is media attention to water-borne illnesses and contamination.

Depending on location and sanitation conditions, flood water will contaminate drinking water supplies (surfacewater, groundwater, and distribution systems). Groundwater wells can be rendered useless from inundation of water laced with toxins, chemicals, animal carcasses, septic seepage, and municipal sewage. Surfacewater sources are obviously affected in similar manners. Infectious diseases can also be spread through contaminated drinking water supplies. As indicated by the Center for Disease Control, such illnesses could include:

• Cryptosporidiosis
• Enteroviruses
• General E. coli information
• Giardiasis
• Leptospirosis
• Legionnaires’ disease
• Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infection

Diseases not present in an area before a major flood event are not likely to be present after a major flood event. Cholera and typhoid are much more common in developing countries, as opposed to developed countries after a flood. Additionally, those located in a country with many assets are often served with fresh drinking water on tanker trucks, or individuals will move to a nearby location with ample municipal water supplies.

Devastation in Bangladesh, photo courtesy SOS-Arsenic.net.

Prospects in countries without such available infrastructure are often dire. Bangladesh encounters flooding annually. In August of 2007, floods in the region (Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and India) killed over 2,000 people, displaced 20 million people, with many infected by contaminated water supplies (over 100,000 in Bangladesh alone). Currently, Mozambique is enduring serious flooding as the Zambezi River and Save River are cresting the banks from torrential rains in Zimbabwe. A press release was just issued by Oxfam International stating:

“Whenever a flood hits, a lack of clean water and sanitation facilities reaches dangerous levels in a matter of days, if not hours. Access to both will become farther and farther out of reach and could lead to a widespread health crisis as flood waters continue to rise,” said Hugo Oosterkamp, Oxfam International’s Water and Sanitation emergency coordinator in Mozambique.

In developing countries, particularly, time is of the essence to assist people with access to potable water. In such rural locations, education and outreach is essential to provide alternative options for water treatment. At times, it is possible to disinfect a groundwater well that has been contaminated or, more immediately, purify water using solar radiation on top of a house and chlorinate small water supplies for personal use.

For more information, see these web-sites on flood related water issues and well protection from contamination by flooding.