A couple of months ago I posted about the cholera outbreak in Haiti, and how we in the U.S. dont have to worry much about that and other water-borne diseases due to our sanitation. A recent letter to the journal Nature makes the point that a disconnect between the medical community and hydrogeologists and other water experts will not be a long-term solution for Haiti.
Peter Wampler, a geologist at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, suggested that spending scarce resources on vaccination at the expense of sanitation was a losing plan for Haiti. Fractured limestone aquifers are vulnerable to surface contamination, including pathogens. The widespread deforestation and soil erosion in Haiti limit biogeochemical processes that can reduce pollution, and storm events flush pathogens into waters used for drinking. Without addressing the environmental issues, Haiti will continue to be vulnerable to disease outbreaks from water-borne pathogens.
There are no easy answers in a country as poor as Haiti, but any policies that don’t include a substantial effort to improve sanitation are doomed to fail. [Here's the link to my original blog post.]
