Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil: The potential role of local water supply and public health measures

Alexandre Cunha Costa; Tahissa Frota Cavalcante; Andressa Suelly Saturnino de Oliveira; Iran Eduardo Lima Neto; Germano Gondim Ribeiro Neto; Pieter Richard van Oel; Rafaella Pessoa Moreira

doi:10.2166/wh.2025.392

Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil: The potential role of local water supply and public health measures

Alexandre Cunha Costa, Tahissa Frota Cavalcante, Andressa Suelly Saturnino de Oliveira, Iran Eduardo Lima Neto, Germano Gondim Ribeiro Neto, Pieter Richard van Oel, Rafaella Pessoa Moreira

School of Geographical Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Severe droughts (SDs) present a risk to public health, particularly in terms of the proliferation of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea. Because of climate change, the frequency of SDs is likely to increase, potentially straining traditional water supply systems. An 11-year period of SDs in Northeast Brazil, which commenced in 2012, reduced the capacity of 153 drinking water reservoirs to a mere 6.7%, with 86% of water bodies exhibiting eutrophic characteristics. During this period, several water supply and public health measures were implemented. Those measures were associated with a reduction in the incidence of diarrhea hospitalizations during the entire SD period, with an average annual reduction of −4.9%. This assessment identifies potential adaptive measures to mitigate the impact of climate change on water-related human health, thus supporting the implementation of measures to protect against climate risks to public health.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	743-756
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Water and Health
Volume	23
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2025.392
Publication status	Published - 21 May 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 13 Climate Action

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title = "Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil: The potential role of local water supply and public health measures",

abstract = "Severe droughts (SDs) present a risk to public health, particularly in terms of the proliferation of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea. Because of climate change, the frequency of SDs is likely to increase, potentially straining traditional water supply systems. An 11-year period of SDs in Northeast Brazil, which commenced in 2012, reduced the capacity of 153 drinking water reservoirs to a mere 6.7\%, with 86\% of water bodies exhibiting eutrophic characteristics. During this period, several water supply and public health measures were implemented. Those measures were associated with a reduction in the incidence of diarrhea hospitalizations during the entire SD period, with an average annual reduction of −4.9\%. This assessment identifies potential adaptive measures to mitigate the impact of climate change on water-related human health, thus supporting the implementation of measures to protect against climate risks to public health.",

author = "Costa, \{Alexandre Cunha\} and Cavalcante, \{Tahissa Frota\} and \{de Oliveira\}, \{Andressa Suelly Saturnino\} and \{Lima Neto\}, \{Iran Eduardo\} and \{Ribeiro Neto\}, \{Germano Gondim\} and \{van Oel\}, \{Pieter Richard\} and Moreira, \{Rafaella Pessoa\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).",

year = "2025",

month = may,

day = "21",

doi = "10.2166/wh.2025.392",

language = "English",

volume = "23",

pages = "743--756",

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Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil: The potential role of local water supply and public health measures. / Costa, Alexandre Cunha; Cavalcante, Tahissa Frota; de Oliveira, Andressa Suelly Saturnino et al.
In: Journal of Water and Health, Vol. 23, No. 6, 21.05.2025, p. 743-756.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil

T2 - The potential role of local water supply and public health measures

AU - Costa, Alexandre Cunha

AU - Cavalcante, Tahissa Frota

AU - de Oliveira, Andressa Suelly Saturnino

AU - Lima Neto, Iran Eduardo

AU - Ribeiro Neto, Germano Gondim

AU - van Oel, Pieter Richard

AU - Moreira, Rafaella Pessoa

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PY - 2025/5/21

Y1 - 2025/5/21

N2 - Severe droughts (SDs) present a risk to public health, particularly in terms of the proliferation of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea. Because of climate change, the frequency of SDs is likely to increase, potentially straining traditional water supply systems. An 11-year period of SDs in Northeast Brazil, which commenced in 2012, reduced the capacity of 153 drinking water reservoirs to a mere 6.7%, with 86% of water bodies exhibiting eutrophic characteristics. During this period, several water supply and public health measures were implemented. Those measures were associated with a reduction in the incidence of diarrhea hospitalizations during the entire SD period, with an average annual reduction of −4.9%. This assessment identifies potential adaptive measures to mitigate the impact of climate change on water-related human health, thus supporting the implementation of measures to protect against climate risks to public health.

AB - Severe droughts (SDs) present a risk to public health, particularly in terms of the proliferation of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea. Because of climate change, the frequency of SDs is likely to increase, potentially straining traditional water supply systems. An 11-year period of SDs in Northeast Brazil, which commenced in 2012, reduced the capacity of 153 drinking water reservoirs to a mere 6.7%, with 86% of water bodies exhibiting eutrophic characteristics. During this period, several water supply and public health measures were implemented. Those measures were associated with a reduction in the incidence of diarrhea hospitalizations during the entire SD period, with an average annual reduction of −4.9%. This assessment identifies potential adaptive measures to mitigate the impact of climate change on water-related human health, thus supporting the implementation of measures to protect against climate risks to public health.

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M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

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JO - Journal of Water and Health

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IS - 6

ER -

Sharp decline of diarrhea hospitalizations despite historical drought in Brazil: The potential role of local water supply and public health measures

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

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