CLEAN WATER CRISIS - THE GLOBAL TRAVELER

INTRODUCTION – WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT…

Each year the world undergoes countless natural disasters from wildfires, to floods, to earthquakes and hurricanes (1). When disasters such as these sweep through towns and cities, they raze buildings to the ground and utterly destroy the infrastructure of electric lines, pipes and water mains. People lose access to necessities such as electricity and, more importantly, water and must find a way to pick up the remains and make do until emergency services can access them. However, sometimes, despite the best efforts of the government, nothing can be done and thousands of people remain without easy access to clean drinking water or electricity for weeks or even months, as evidenced by the situation in Puerto Rico since Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2). Instead, they are left with collapsed water systems that have accumulated debris and sewage and are likely teeming with thousands of bacteria and waterborne diseases.

This only begins to scratch the surface of the need for clean water in our world. Even without natural disasters leaving their mark, there are almost 1 billion people living in underdeveloped parts of the world who do not have access to basic, clean and safe drinking water (3,4). Of these people, 160 million are purely dependent on surface water, from sources such as lakes, rivers, and ponds, all of which are subject to runoff. Furthermore, over 2 billion people in the world use drinking water from sources contaminated with fecal matter and waterborne disease. Taking all these shocking and disturbing facts into account, it’s no wonder that many nonprofits and organizations have started pushing for clean water initiatives over the last few years.

water

Access OpenStax: 1.1 What Our Ancestors Knew and 16.4 Global Public Health

LEARNING GOALS

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Recall new vocabulary and definitions that pertain to this module.
Identify examples of waterborne pathogens (parasites, bacteria, viruses).
Recall the global problem with lack of water sanitation and cleaning drinking water.
Recall the process of a water reclamation facility and describe components of activated sludge.

HISTORY CONNECTION

greetings from London - John Snow and the cholera epidemic

Clean drinking water, purifying water and deliberately contaminating water wells has been important to human culture for thousands of years. The "Medicine, Microbiology and Health" study abroad group from UF visited the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where diseases and outbreaks are still studied today.

:SHTM MMH 2022

Check out the Cholera map in London.

CASE STUDY

Dr. Rita Colwell has been working in rural Bangladesh for years to reduce cholera outbreaks. Read this interview about her work The link between saris and cholera (7) She showed that cholera incidence can be reduced by ~50% by filtering river/drinking water through sari, the dress local women wear. What are some simple methods that could be used in rural and urban areas to improve water quality? We will do a similar study in our in person lab.

A few years ago when Dr. Colwell visited UF I was fortunate to spend some time with her. What a role model. In addition to incredible science she conducted, she was the first female director of the NSF (National Science Foundation) from 1998-2004. She is now in her late 80ies and still active in research.

Dr. Colwell and Oli at UF

Dr. Colwell and Dr. Oli

VOCAB & VIDEOS & WEBSITES

Take a look at the appropriate module for the vocabulary that is being tested: Microbiology @ UF Lab Terminology Quizlet.

There are a large number of water borne pathogens, what methods do you use to 1. Detect the pathogen (and/or vector or reservoir) in the water sample or water body and 2. To diagnose the respective diseases?

Viruses (Hepatitis A, Polio……)
Bacteria (Campylobacter, Typhus, Cholera…..)
Protozoa (Amoeba, Giardia, Cryptosporidium……)
Worms (Schistosoma, Guniea worm).
Common terms for certain water born diseases are: dysentery, traveler’s diarrhea or beaver fever and more

How can you as local/global traveler prevent being infected (behavior, vaccines, water purification methods, treatments)?

LINKS

Use GIDEON to diagnose disease caused by contaminated water, learn about the diseases, get to know the different pathogens

See how the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) relate to Microbiology.

QUIZ

Take the quiz.

ACTIVITIES

FACE-TO-FACE LAB ACTIVITY

Clean water Crisis - Global Traveler

Waterborne Pathogens and Toxins

ASSIGNMENTS/DISCUSSIONS

Complete assignments scheduled.

REAL-WORLD APPLICATION

Water is not just essential for life but it also has a lot of symbolic importance in various rituals and purification ceremonies (Picture by Dr. Oli at a religious ceremony in Nepal).

water in religious ceremonies

Then more recently, bottled water became a new "cult" that started in the Western culture. Since the quality of bottled water is much less stringent than the testing for tap water, the drive to buy bottled water in the West is driven by advertisement and materialistic gain of large companies, rather than based on health related motives. In areas where waster is not safe to drink, bottled water is a life safer. In most of the Western world where water is safe to drink, bottled water destroys the environment by tapping springs and causing tremendous pollution with plastic waste. Check out the documentary "Tapped". Our beautiful springs (photo) around Gainesville are tapped by Nestle cooperation!

18 water 2.jpg

ELN REFLECTION

Submit your ELN according to your GTA's instructions.

ABOVE AND BEYOND

References

“The Deadliest Natural Disasters of 2017.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Oct. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/education/stem-awards/design/deadliest-natural-disasters/.
Robles, Frances, and Jess Bidgood. “Three Months After Maria, Roughly Half of Puerto Ricans Still Without Power.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Dec. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/us/puerto-rico-power-outage.html.
“Drinking-Water.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs391/en/.
“Global Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Apr. 2016, www.cdc.gov/healthywater/global/wash_statistics.html.
Hajna, A. A., and C. A. Perry. “Comparative study of presumptive and confirmative media for bacteria of the coliform group and for fecal streptococci.” Am. J. Public Health 1943. 33:550‑558.
Feng, P. C. S., and P. A. Hartman. “Fluorogenic assay for immediate confirmation of Escherichia coli.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 1982. 43 :1320–1329.
Rita R. Colwell, Anwar Huq, M. Sirajul Islam, K. M. A. Aziz, M. Yunus, N. Huda Khan, A. Mahmud, R. Bradley Sack, G. B. Nair, J. Chakraborty, David A. Sack, E. Russek-Cohen (2003). Reduction of cholera in Bangladeshi villages by simple filtration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2003, 100 (3) 1051-1055