Heavy weather events, water quality and gastroenteritis in Norway

Abstract

Climate change will lead to more extreme weather events in Europe. In Norway, little is known about how this will affect drinking water quality and population's health due to waterborne diseases. The aim of our work was to generate new knowledge on the effect of extreme weather conditions and climate change on drinking water and waterborne disease. In this respect we studied the relationship between temperature, precipitation and runoff events, raw and treated water quality, and gastroenteritis consultations in Norway in 2006–2014 to anticipate the risk with changing climate conditions. The main findings are positive associations between extreme weather events and raw water quality, but only few with treated drinking water. Increase in maximum temperature was associated with an increase in risk of disease among all ages and 15–64 years olds for the whole year. Heavy rain and high runoff were associated with a decrease in risk of gastroenteritis for different age groups and time periods throughout the year. No evidence was found that increase in precipitation and runoff trigger increased gastroenteritis outbreaks. Large waterworks in Norway currently seem to manage extreme weather events in preventing waterborne disease. However, with more extreme weather in the future, this may change. Therefore, modelling future climate scenarios is necessary to assess the need for improved water treatment capacity in a future climate.