Editorial: Water pollution and human health

Résumé

Beginning with microbial contaminants, Potgieter et al. investigated wastewater-impacted rivers in South Africa's Limpopo province and found that pathogenic, extended-spectrum betalactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli are widely distributed and represent a persistent public health concern rather than isolated contamination events. The study characterizes this as a "double threat" of virulence and antimicrobial resistance and emphasizes the urgent need for improved tertiary wastewater treatment and integrated surveillance systems. Douterelo et al.expanded this perspective by shifting the focus from merely describing pollution to predicting contamination events. Integrating rainfall events with DNA-based microbial source tracking of fecal pollution at river bathing sites provides in-depth knowledge of the nature of contamination.Authors demonstrated that storm surges, rather than steady-state baseline conditions, frequently drive contaminant levels beyond safe recreational thresholds. Zooming out from individual riverine systems to the population scale, Zhao et al. revealed that the global burden of diarrheal disease in older adults from 1990 to 2021 makes it clear that, even as overall incidence has fallen in many regions, the risk has not reduced by the same proportion. Interestingly, older adults remain disproportionately vulnerable to a disease often regarded as largely controlled.The other collection of papers we received in this RT shifts the focus from microbes to metals. Wang et al. trace the sources of heavy metal contamination in surface water and groundwater surrounding mining-affected areas, separating the background geological signal from the fraction attributable to extraction activity itself, which is indeed a distinction that matters enormously for anyone trying to assign responsibility for sustainable remediation strategies.Similarly, Norvivor et al. documented the ecological and human health risks associated with heavy metal contamination in the Nubui River. These studies clarify the challenges faced by rural and remote communities, where populations often have little choice but to rely on water containing elevated concentrations of toxic metals. Custodio et al. assessed sediment across Peru's lotic ecosystems and quantified potential ecological risks using approaches that provide valuable evidence for environmental management and policymaking. Likewise, Zeng et al. conducted an extensive hydrogeochemical survey of groundwater across Jilin Province, China, generating largescale baseline data that will be crucial for future groundwater quality monitoring and health risk assessments.Water pollution rarely remains confined to human health. Abosse et al. demonstrated that their assessment of cattle health risks in Ethiopia's Akaki River Catchment serves as a useful reminder of this fact. Livestock consuming the same contaminated water sources as local communities serve as both an exposure pathway and an early warning system for necessary reforms. The "One Health" framework adopted by the authors for this study, which treats human, animal, and environmental health as a single, interconnected system rather than as separate incidents, represents, in our view, where much of this field is heading and its future direction.

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