Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future
Abstract
This repository item contains a single issue of Issues in Brief, a series of policy briefs that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.Pardee 2012 Summer Graduate Fellow Diana R. Gergel argues that not enough attention is paid to the public health challenge of various water-borne diseases and their relationship to the engineering design of dams in developing countries. She explores the ways in which water resources development can be planned and executed to minimize the risk of spreading or worsening water-borne diseases in nearby communities. While water resources development in the form of irrigation systems, dams, and reservoirs is essential to sustainable development on the African continent, they profoundly alter water landscapes and the surrounding ecosystems, leading to the spread of water-borne diseases. She concludes with a number of feasible solutions to this problem by altering engineering design techniques to mitigate these diseases
