Influence of Climate Extremes and Land Use on Fecal Contamination of Shallow Tubewells in Bangladesh

Abstract

Climate extremes in conjunction with some land use practices are expected to have large impacts on water quality. However, the impacts of land use and climate change on fecal contamination of groundwater has not been well characterized. This work quantifies the influences of extreme weather events and land use practices on Escherichia coli presence and concentration in groundwater from 125 shallow wells, a dominant drinking water resource in rural Bangladesh, monitored over a 17 month period. The results showed that E. coli presence was significantly associated with the number of heavy rain days, developed land and areas with more surface water. These variables also had significant impacts on E. coli concentration, with risk ratios of 1.38 (95% CI = 1.16, 1.65), 1.07 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.09), and 1.02 (95% CI = 1.01, 1.03), respectively. Significant synergistic effects on E. coli presence and concentration were observed when land use and weather variables were combined. The findings suggest that climate extremes and land use practices, particularly urbanization, might promote fecal contamination of shallow well water, thus increasing the risk of diarrheal diseases.

Figure 1

The locations of tubewells for water sampling in the two study sites (Matlab and the village of Char Para) in Bangladesh

Figure 2

Characteristics of E. coli concentration and detection rate, weather variables and land use variables in two study sites. In the subplot B, the E. coli detection rate is the percent of the positive samples in which E. coli was detected. In the subplot E, the monthly average rainfall is the accumulation of daily rainfall in a month divided by the number of days in that month.