Water Quality is Crucial to Human Health and Security

At the Stockholm water week, on the 9th September 2010, Dr. Rita R. Colwell of the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health received the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize for her pioneering research on the prevention of waterborne infectious diseases – the second most frequent cause of death of children under 5 and the cause of sickness of millions.

Dr. Colwell is joined by other experts at the World Water Week in Stockholm in stressing the need to increase attention on the effects of worsening water quality on human health and security. “Infection by waterborne diseases, parasites, bacteria and viruses cause a reduced capacity for work and daily functions, which creates economic and social disruption and a reduction of a capacity of a country. Safe drinking water is absolutely critical to economic stability, social stability and even national security,” says Dr. Colwell. According to the Laureate, the “most effective way to prevent and eradicate waterborne diseases in developing countries and remote areas include using appropriate local technologies, removing particulates and organisms carrying bacteria that cause disease.”

Dr. Colwell has made exceptional contributions to control the spread of cholera, a waterborne pathogen that infects 3 to 5 million people and leads to an estimated 120,000 deaths each year. Through her groundbreaking research, innovations and decades of scientific leadership, she has defined current understanding of the ecology of infectious diseases and developed the use of advanced technologies to halt their spread.