Another COVID-19 Fault Line: Dysfunctional Wastewater Infrastructure?
Don’t be surprised if water — whose story globally is about inequality and failing infrastructure — becomes a big part of the story after all
Water didn’t seem especially relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic for the first months. But as the crisis unfolds, the disparities between how it impacts haves and have-nots continue to reveal themselves — and a new letter in The Lancet suggests that wastewater infrastructure and a lack of access to functional sanitation might be among those fault lines.
The Lancet letter discusses the potential for wastewater plumbing systems to spread viruses, including the virus that causes COVID-19:
- By design, wastewater plumbing systems are hotbeds for pathogens. The Lancet letter argues that defects in these systems also enable contaminated air to travel within or between buildings.
- This finding means we need to be greatly concerned about the possibility for transmission of the virus in apartment complexes and even neighborhoods that share sewer systems.
And because this is a problem caused by dysfunctional wastewater plumbing systems, those people with access to poor quality high-density housing and wastewater services could be at higher risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19.
Because this is a problem caused by dysfunctional wastewater plumbing systems, those people with access to poor quality high-density housing and wastewater services could be at higher risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19.
— John Sabo
This isn’t just a problem in low-income countries, though. In the United States alone, about 2 million people — greater than the population size of Phoenix — do not have access to clean water and sanitation, according to a US Water Alliance study.
And many of these people already belong to some of our most marginalized populations — people who live on Indian reservations, in the rural Deep South, and native people of Hawaii and Alaska.
While each of these areas are in unrelated locations, these places are already getting hit hard by COVID-19 for multiple reasons — for instance, as coronavirus cases continue to climb rapidly in Navajo Nation. We need to add lack of access to well-functioning and good quality sanitation to that list of potential reasons.
That said, there is no guarantee that you have a perfectly functioning wastewater system no matter how expensive your home or zip code. This issue could create conditions of higher exposure for lots of people.
At ASU, we’ve been developing a sensor technology to monitor water flow throughout a building that could be adapted to monitor the conditions in water systems that make virus transmission possible.
COVID-19 is unmasking underlying conditions of inequality and failing infrastructure around the world. Don’t be surprised if water — whose story globally is about inequality and failing infrastructure — becomes a big part of this story after all.
