01-05 Water-Borne

If there is one water-borne disease where the link with climate change is clear it is cholera. A bacteria found in contaminated water systems everywhere that will grow and increase as water warms.
A disease that causes dangerous dehydration and diarrhea, and can kill within hours if not treated. Something we associate with conflicts when sanitation and water systems have been bombed or damaged, and people lack access to clean water.
In 2010, Haiti experienced a major earthquake that destroyed water systems, wells and sanitation facilities. People were forced to access pools of contaminated water for drinking.
The result was a major cholera epidemic that effected something like 800,000 citizens. And something like 10,000 died. That is on top of the 200,000 killed by the hurricane itself.
The Canadian Governor-General at the time was Michelle Jean, who was Haitian- borne. When she appeared on TV to announce the earthquake disaster in Haiti, she was in tears.
The photo shows hospital workers and nurses trying to cope with the cholera epidemic. It is all about hydration and antibiotics.
In recent times the civil war in Yemen that started in 2016 has already caused an outbreak of cholera. Something like two million have been effected. There is no accurate death toll.
The living conditions are disgusting. Not only is there a shortage of clean water, but there are inadequate facilities for treating waste water and sewage. A nation that is a natural breeding ground for cholera.
What we anticipate with climate change is surprising changes in weather patterns. More flooding, more drought. All of these changes will create pools of contaminated water that are breeding grounds for cholera.
And we haven’t even got into other water-borne diseases linked to climate change like typhoid, various forms of food poisoning and exotic diseases I cannot even spell or pronounce.