Learn more about Water-related Diseases

Water-related diseases are nearly absent from the daily lives of people living in rich countries.  However, they water-related diseases continue to plague the daily lives of people living in poor nations.  Each year more than five million people die from water-related diseases.  Even if the explicit Millennium Goals announced by the United Nations in 2000 are achieved, between 34 and 76 million people will perish from water-related diseases by 2020.

Water-related diseases can be divided into the following four groups:

• Water-borne diseases are transmitted through the ingestion of water contaminated with human or animal feces containing pathogenic bacteria or viruses. Some examples are dysentery, typhoid, cholera and other diarrheal diseases.
• Water-washed diseases are caused by lack of water for personal and domestic cleanliness or contact with contaminated water. Some examples include skin and eye infections such as trachoma and scabies.
• Water-based diseases are transmitted via an intermediate host which lives in water and cause illness in humans who ingest the water or use it for washing. Some examples are guinea worm and schistosomiasis, which the World Health Organization reports currently infects 200 million people in 76 countries.
• Water-related insect vector diseases are transmitted by insects which breed in water or bite near water. These diseases are not associated with lack of access to clean, but their spread is often facilitated by the construction of large-scale irrigation systems and reservoirs that create conditions favorable to their hosts. Examples of these disesases include malaria, dengue, yellow fever and filariasis.

Please see the World Health Organization's Fact Sheets on Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases for more information.