Abstract
Uncertainty about the timing and the magnitude of natural disasters (such as floods, droughts, earthquakes) affects water resources planning and management in terms of the supply of safe drinking water and access to sanitation infrastructure. This in turn has a profound effect on human health. Drinking contaminated water often results in the outbreak of diarrheal infections (such as cholera, Shigella, and so on). Infectious pathogens (such as Vibrio cholerae) can survive in aquatic environments under appropriate hydroclimatic conditions. Therefore, the challenge is to estimate the risk of an outbreak of disease after a natural disaster occurs. Using cholera as a signature diarrheal disease and employing the weighted raster overlay method, a framework is presented for assessing the role of water resources, particularly water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), in determining the likelihood of an outbreak of a disease in the human population. Results indicate that there were favorable hydroclimatic conditions for the survival of pathogenic cholera bacteria in natural water systems in the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal in 2015. However, few cholera patients were reported in the country, indicating that the prevailing resilient WASH infrastructure played a pivotal role in deterring a disease outbreak.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research is funded, in part, from a research grant from NASA (NNX15AF71G).
References
Alam, M., et al. 2006. “Seasonal cholera caused by Vibrio cholerae serogroups O1 and O139 in the coastal aquatic environment of Bangladesh.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72 (6): 4096–4104.
Alexander, K. A., M. Carzolio, D. Goodin, and E. Vance. 2013. “Climate change is likely to worsen the public health threat of diarrheal disease in Botswana.” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 10 (4): 1202–1230.
Andersson, N., and S. Mitchell. 2006. “Epidemiological geomatics in evaluation of mine risk education in Afghanistan: Introducing population weighted raster maps.” Int. J. Health Geographics 5 (1): 1.
Auerbach, P. S. 2015. “Preparedness explains some differences between Haiti and Nepal’s response to earthquake.” BMJ 350: h3059.
Bartlett, J. G. 2008. “Infectious diseases associated with natural disasters.” In The social ecology of infectious diseases, 351–377. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
Cairncross, S., C. Hunt, S. Boisson, K. Bostoen, V. Curtis, I. C. Fung, and W. P. Schmidt. 2010. “Water, sanitation and hygiene for the prevention of diarrhoea.” Supplement, Int. J. Epidemiol. 39 (S1): 193–205.
Codeco, C. T., S. Lele, M. Pascual, M. Bouma, and A. I. Ko. 2008. “A stochastic model for ecological systems with strong nonlinear response to environmental drivers: Application to two water-borne diseases.” J. R. Soc. Interface 5 (19): 247–252.
Colwell, R. R. 1996. “Global climate and infectious disease: The cholera paradigm.” Science 274 (5295): 2025–2031.
Constantin de Magny, G., et al. 2008. “Environmental signatures associated with cholera epidemics.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 105 (46): 17676–17681.
EDCD (Epidemiology and Disease Control Division). 2015. “Early warning and reporting system (EWARS).” Accessed June 2012. http://www.edcd.gov.np/public/uploads/attachments/1473142047.pdf.
Eisenberg, M. C., G. Kujbida, A. R. Tuite, D. N. Fisman, and J. H. Tien. 2013. “Examining rainfall and cholera dynamics in Haiti using statistical and dynamic modeling approaches.” Epidemics 5 (4): 197–207.
EM DAT (Emergency Events Database). 2016. “The OFDA/CRED international disaster database.” Accessed January 7, 2017. http://www.emdat.be/database.
Enserink, M. 2010. “Haiti’s outbreak is latest in cholera’s new global assault.” Science 330 (6005): 738–739.
Eppinger, M., et al. 2014. “Genomic epidemiology of the Haitian cholera outbreak: A single introduction followed by rapid, extensive, and continued spread characterized the onset of the epidemic.” mBio 5 (6): e01721.
Epstein, P. R. 1993. “Algal blooms in the spread and persistence of cholera.” Bio Syst. 31 (2–3): 209–221.
Frerichs, R. R., P. S. Keim, R. Barrais, and R. Piarroux. 2012. “Nepalese origin of cholera epidemic in Haiti.” Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 18 (6): E158–E163.
Goyal, M. K., V. Singh, and A. H. Meena. 2015. “Geospatial and hydrological modeling to assess hydropower potential zones and site location over rainfall dependent inland catchment.” Water Resour. Manage. 29 (8): 2875–2894.
Handzel, T., G. Lockhart, K. Bliss, R. Gelting, and M. Patrick. 2013. “Water, sanitation and hygiene in Haiti: Past, present, and future.” Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 89 (4): 665–670.
Huq, A., E. B. Small, P. A. West, M. I. Huq, R. Rahman, and R. R. Colwell. 1983. “Ecological relationships between Vibrio cholerae and planktonic crustacean copepods.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 45 (1): 275–283.
Jutla, A., H. Aldaach, A. S. Akanda, A. Huq, and R. R. Colwell. 2015. “Satellite based assessment of hydroclimatic conditions related to cholera in Zimbabwe.” PLoS One, 10 (9): e0137828.
Jutla, A., R. Khan, and R. Colwell. 2017. “Natural disasters and cholera outbreaks: Current understanding and future outlook.” Cur. Environ. Health Rep. 4 (1): 99–107.
Jutla, A., E. Whitcombe, N. Hasan, B. Haley, A. Akanda, A. Huq, M. Alam, R. B. Sack, and R. Colwell. 2013. “Environmental factors influencing epidemic cholera.” Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 89 (3): 597–607.
Jutla, A. S., A. S. Akanda, and S. Islam. 2010. “Tracking cholera in coastal regions using satellite observations.” JAWRA J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc. 46 (4): 651–662.
Khan, M. U., and M. Shahidullah. 1982. “Role of water and sanitation in the incidence of cholera in refugee camps.” Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 76 (3): 373–377.
Leaning, J., and D. Guha-Sapir. 2013. “Natural disasters, armed conflict, and public health.” N. Engl. J. Med. 369 (19): 1836–1842.
Nasrollahi, N., H. Kazemi, and B. Kamkar. 2017. “Feasibility of ley-farming system performance in a semi-arid region using spatial analysis.” Ecol. Indic. 72: 239–248.
Nelson, E. J., J. R. Andrews, S. Maples, M. Barry, and J. D. Clemens. 2015. “Is a cholera outbreak preventable in post-earthquake Nepal?” PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 9 (8): e0003961. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003961.
OpenNepal. 2018. “OpenNepal dataset.” Accessed October 4, 2017. http://opennepal.net.
Rebaudet, S., B. Sudre, B. Faucher, and R. Piarroux. 2013. “Environmental determinants of cholera outbreaks in inland Africa: A systematic review of main transmission foci and propagation routes.” Supplement, J. Infect. Dis. 208 (S1): 46–54.
Reidl, J., and K. E. Klose. 2002. “Vibrio cholerae and cholera: Out of the water and into the host.” FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 26 (2): 125–139.
Rinaldo, A., R. Rigon, J. R. Banavar, A. Maritan, and I. Rodriguez-Iturbe. 2014. “Evolution and selection of river networks: Statics, dynamics, and complexity.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 111 (7): 2417–2424.
Showstack, R. 2015. “What can we learn about disaster preparedness from Nepal’s quake?” Eos 96 (10): 10–14. 10.1029/2015EO029415.
Singleton, F. L., R. W. Attwell, M. S. Jangi, and R. R. Colwell. 1982. “Influence of salinity and organic nutrient concentration on survival and growth of Vibrio cholerae in aquatic microcosms.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 43 (5): 1080–1085.
The Himalayan Times. 2015. “Cholera outbreak under control now.” Accessed January 4, 2017. https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/cholera-outbreak-under-control-now.
UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund). 2015. “UNICEF annual report.” Accessed January 7, 2017. https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_Annual_Report_2015_En.pdf.
USGS (United States Geological Survey). 2017. “United States geological survey earthquake dataset.” Accessed January 7, 2017. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map.
WaterAid. 2015. “WaterAid Nepal steps up efforts to prevent cholera crisis after earthquake.” Accessed January 4, 2017. http://www.wateraid.org/np/news/news/wateraid-nepal-steps-up-efforts-to-prevent-cholera-crisis-after-earthquake.
WHO (World Health Organization). 2006. “Communicable diseases following natural disasters.” Accessed January 7, 2017. http://www.who.int/diseasecontrol_emergencies/publications/who_cds_ntd_dce_2006.4/en.
WHO (World Health Organization). 2008 “Cholera in Zimbabwe: Update.” Accessed October 6, 2014. http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_12_26/en/.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 11, 2017
Accepted: Nov 6, 2017
Published online: May 31, 2018
Published in print: Aug 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2018
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Developing countries
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Diseases
- Earthquakes
- Geohazards
- Geotechnical engineering
- Health hazards
- Natural disasters
- Practice and Profession
- Public administration
- Public health and safety
- Risk management
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Water policy
- Water resources
- Water shortage
- Water supply
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.