Fecal peril caused by intestinal parasites is commonly reported to be causing health problems in the world. Furthermore, global climate change is inevitable. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the health effects of climate change. Water shortage contribute to increase the pressure on regional water resources and force a greater number of people to use urban wastewater as an alternative for irrigation. Therefore, unsafe management and inappropriate wastewater use in urban agriculture is likely to be responsible of exacerbating the transmission of infectious diseases, including those caused by intestinal protozoa and helminths parasitic worms. It should be taken into account that waterborne diseases are influencedby climate change. The frequency and severity of intertwined extreme weather events driven by climate change are occurring worldwide and likely to cause epidemics of waterborne gastroenteritis. The association found between both rainfall, river flooding, and the majority of waterborne disease outbreaks was frequently proved to be preceded by climatic change events.
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At the global level, there has been a growing shortage of freshwater reserves, mainly those of good quality, as a result of increasing human consumption and, in some regions, decreases in the annual rainfall or annual rainfall consisting mostly of heavy rain, which is poorly absorbed by the soil (Karl and Knight, 1996). Additionally, Climate change will likely affect the water resources due to the expected changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration and the spatio-temporal distribution of these essential water balance components (Kumar et al., 2017). Water scarcity is considered a key threat for the twenty-first century. FAO defines dry lands as areas where water shortage constrains the length of the growing season below 179 days (FAO 2000); this includes regions classified climatically as arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid. Currently, 36% of the world population is living in regions where water is a limited resource (Safriel et al., 2005).
Population growth associated with urbanization is increasing the pressure on regional water resources. In 2014, the United Nations estimated that 3.9 billion of the world’s population resided in urban areas, with 2.8 billion living in developing countries. The continuing population growth and urbanization are projected to add 3.1 billion people to the urban world population by 2050, with a 2.25 billion-population increase in Asian and African cities (WUP. 2014). Hydrometeorological and climate extremes and change can exert profound stresses on urban environments. This is especially critical in regions where climate change is expected to exacerbate water stress and increase precipitation variability, thus reducing the amount of water available for both irrigation and the environment (Hanjra et al., 2012). When projecting the current trend of global annual water usage, it will rise to 6.9 trillion cubic meters by 2030, being 40% more than can be provided by available water supplies (Gilbert, 2010). Water quality degradation is quickly joining water scarcity in most countries of these regions. Growing demands for water to produce food, supply industries, and support human populations have led to competition for scarce freshwater supplies. A whole range of possibilities of mechanisms that can be used to reduce the pressure on freshwater resources for irrigation use.
They are based on the mobilization of conventional and unconventional resources. It is based under three pillars:
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Management of water demand and water valuation.
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Mobilization of unconventional resources including promotion of projects desalination of seawater and the reuse of wastewater.
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Protection of water resources, the natural environment and adaptation to climatic changes.