4: Floods & Waterborne Diseases

Hello! During week 4 I worked on the Methods section of my current rough draft report and focused on the recent significant changes in Pakistan’s environment that caused the spike in malaria cases and why certain mosquito species were more prevalent than others. Essentially, the species that are most recognized are those that thrive in polluted water bodies. The species Anopheles culicifacies, my focus for this project, are able to adapt to several different water bodies like clean water, rice fields, and polluted water pools. This allows them to flourish in many different regions in Pakistan, and just as much during the flooding, my second area of research this week.

To summarize my research in the Pakistan environment and reasoning behind the sudden increase in malaria cases, Pakistan dealt with some of the worst flooding it has experienced in its history during the summer of 2022. The total damages reached to over USD 14.9 billion, and the estimated need for reconstruction is at least USD 16 billion. The floods destroyed many of the water systems in place, so contaminated water was all that was accessible to millions of people. Contaminated water itself is not responsible for malaria, but mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water. Clogged drains and improperly stored water containers can become a breeding ground for these mosquitoes. 

Consuming contaminated water can lead to waterborne diseases such as typhoid and diarrhoea, which significantly weaken a  person’s immune system. Half of the 33 million people affected by the floods were children, and their weakened immune systems were even more likely to contract malaria if bitten because many were also malnourished. These childrens’ susceptibility to waterborne diseases initiates a repeating cycle of malnutrition and increased infection because of the floods. 

In the more populated areas like the Punjab province, industrialization led to improved health systems while better water management and rice cultivation practices helped mitigate the stagnant pools where malaria-carrying mosquitoes reproduce. As these areas were removed, the focus turned to more rural and remote regions, such as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces.

Thanks for reading my week 4 blog! Come back next week for my updates where I will mainly focus on making progress on my report and beginning research on current vector control methods.