Challenges for Safe and Healthy Drinking Water in China
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WATER AND HEALTH (T WADE, SECTION EDITOR)
Challenges for Safe and Healthy Drinking Water in China Jianyong Wu 1
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review Rapid economic growth and its huge population are putting tremendous pressure on water sustainability in China. Ensuring clean drinking water is a great challenge for public health due to water shortage and pollution. This article reviews current scientific findings on health-related issues on drinking water and discusses the challenges for safe and healthy drinking water in China. Recent Findings From literature published since 2010, a variety of emerging contaminants were detected in drinking water, including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), antibiotic resistance genes, and pathogens. Arsenic and fluoride are still the two major contaminants in groundwater. Microcystins, toxins produced by cyanobacteria, were also frequently detected in surface water for drinking. Health effects of exposure to arsenic, fluoride, nitrates, DBPs, and noroviruses in drinking water have been reported in several epidemiological studies. According to literature, water scarcity is still a severe ongoing issue, and regional disparity affects the access to safe and healthy drinking water. In addition, urbanization and climate change have strong influences on drinking water quality and water quantity. Summary Multiple classes of contaminants of emerging concern have been detected in drinking water, while epidemiological studies on their health effects are still inadequate. Water scarcity, regional disparity, urbanization, and climate change are the major challenges for safe and healthy drinking water in China. Keywords Emerging contaminants . Water sustainability . Water scarcity . Epidemiology . Public health
Introduction Safe and healthy drinking water is essential for public health. Inadequate water supply and poor water quality have been linked to numerous health outcomes, e.g., diarrheal diseases [1•, 2]. It was estimated that water pollution, including unsafe water sources, unsafe sanitation, and inadequate handwashing, was responsible for 1.8 million deaths worldwide in 2015. Among these deaths, 1.3 million deaths were attributable to unsafe water sources [3••]. In China, the expansion of its population and economic growth in past decades inevitably led to many environmental problems, particularly
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Water and Health * Jianyong Wu [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
in relation to water. It was estimated that there were 40 billion tons of water shortage per year on average in China [4]. Water pollution is pervasive, nearly 80% of lakes in China suffer from eutrophication, over 40% of its rivers are heavily polluted [5••], and groundwater is ubiquitously contaminated in both shallow and deep aq
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