Water and Health

The contribution of civil and environmental engineers to the present excellent state of health in our society was and is enormous. Civil and environmental water engineers are also health engineers. Good design, operation and maintenance of water systems is key in health protection and central to the Sustainable Development Goals. The global burden of waterborne diseases is still very high and largely preventable! The disease burden is particularly high in low income countries, but also high income countries have water and health challenges. Look at the Flint drinking-water crisis (lead and Legionella), the increasing number of outbreaks of Legionella via cooling towers and hot water systems, increasing reuse, antibiotic resistance in the environment, water in the city etc.

This course aims to empower you with knowledge to incorporate health-thinking in your engineering skills. Knowledge on human diseases related to water; pathogenic microbes, antimicrobial resistance and toxic chemicals and the diseases they cause, how these contaminants behave in the water environment and how they can be transmitted through water systems and cause disease. Many different health hazards, and you will learn to design a water system that is safe or evaluate the safety of an existing water system using a uniform health impact assessment approach. The WHO frameworks and guidelines on risk assessment of water and health are central to this course.