Landscape Drivers and Social Dynamics Shaping Microbial Contamination Risk in Three Maya Communities in Southern Belize, Central America

Peter Esselman,Henry Peller,Joel Wainwright,Shiguo Jiang,David Buck

doi:10.3390/w10111678

Abstract

Land transformation can have cascading effects on hydrology, water quality, and human users of water resources, with serious implications for human health. An interdisciplinary analysis is presented, whereby remote-sensing data of changing land use and cover are related to surface hydrology and microbial contamination in domestic use areas of three indigenous Maya communities in Belize, Central America. We asked whether a departure from traditional land-use patterns toward intensified use led to consequences for hydrology and microbial contamination of drinking water, and investigated how social factors in the three study communities may act to ameliorate human health risks associated with water contamination. We showed that a departure from traditional land use to more intensive cultivation and grazing led to significantly increased surface water runoff, and intensified microbial contamination of surface water sources sometimes used for drinking. Results further suggested that groundwater contamination was widespread regardless of land cover, due to the widespread presence of pit latrines, pigs, and cows on the landscape, and that human users were consistently subject to health risks from potential pathogens as a result. Given that both surface and groundwater resources were found to be contaminated, it is important that water distribution systems (piped water from tanks; shallow and deep wells) be monitored for Escherichia coli and treated when necessary to reduce or eliminate contaminants and protect public health. Results of interviews suggested that strengthened capacity within the communities to monitor and treat centralized drinking water sources and increase water treatment at the point of use could lead to reduced risk to water consumers.

Highlights

Throughout rural Latin America, millions of people, including many indigenous peoples, depend upon local streams and aquifers for their water, which is often supplied directly or through rudimentary storage and treatment systems [1]
Our results provide evidence for plausible causal linkages between land-use change to routine cultivation/grazing, increased surface-water runoff, and microbial contamination of surface water that are used by study communities for drinking and other uses
These sources of fecal contamination are likely to be introduced into surface water via runoff, and into groundwater from pit latrines at any time of year and from livestock feces through infiltration following rain events

Summary

Introduction

Throughout rural Latin America, millions of people, including many indigenous peoples, depend upon local streams and aquifers for their water, which is often supplied directly or through rudimentary storage and treatment systems [1]. These communities often receive inadequate access to clean and safe drinking water [2]. Where rural communities are dependent on natural sources or rudimentary water systems (RWSs) for water access, it is critical to understand the environmental processes that determine the quality of surface and subsurface waters. The terrestrial-aquatic nexus is tight, and land transformation can have cascading effects on hydrology, water quality, and human users of these resources by extension

Methods

Results

Conclusion