Development of a Spatial and Temporal Agent-Based Model for Studying Water and Health Relationships: The Case Study of Two Villages in Limpopo, South Africa

Abstract

Diarrhea, the second leading cause of child morbidity and mortality, can have detrimental effects in the physical and cognitive development of children in developing countries. Health interventions (e.g., increased access to health services and safe water) designed to address this problem are difficult to implement in resource-limited settings. In this paper, we present a tool for understanding the complex relationship between water and public health in rural areas of a developing country. A spatial and temporal agent-based model (ABM) was developed to simulate the current water, sanitation, and health status in two villages in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The model was calibrated using empirical data and published sources. It was used to simulate the effects of poor water quality on the frequency of diarrheal episodes in children, and consequently on child development. Preliminary simulation results show that at the current total coliform levels in the water sources of the studied villages, children are expected to experience stunting by as much as −1.0 standard deviations from the World Health Organization height norms. With minor modifications, the calibrated ABM can be used to design and evaluate intervention strategies for improving child health in these villages. The model can also be applied to other regions worldwide that face the same environmental challenges and conditions as the studied villages.

Assessing the environmental context of hand washing among school children in Limpopo, South Africa

“…The University of Virginia, in partnership with the University of Venda, has conducted collaborative community programs and research projects on the environment, water quality and enteric disease within the study communities for almost a decade (Demarest, Pagsuyoin, Learmonth, Mellor, & Dillingham, 2013; Mellor, Abebe, Ehdaie, Dillingham, & Smith, 2014; Mellor, Smith, Samie, & Dillingham, 2013). Consequently, researchers, community members, traditional leaders, and school staff had established long-standing relationships.…”

Inactivation of bacteria from contaminated streams in Limpopo, South Africa by silver- or copper-nanoparticle paper filters

“…Community members use this irrigation canal as a primary source for drinking water. 13,14 The second water source was a wastewater-impacted stream near the University of Venda campus in Thohoyondou, which ultimately flows into the Nandoni Dam Reservoir, the main municipal source for drinking water in the Thohoyandou area. This stream was polluted with raw sewage from a nursery school upstream of our sample collection point, 18 and is designated as “urban”.…”

“…local streams, as their primary source for drinking water; furthermore, recontamination of purified water often occurs due to lengthy storage times. 13,14 In this study, we examined the antibacterial performance of AgNP and CuNP paper sheets with two different surface water sources, which contained differing levels of total coliform and E. coli bacteria. The surface water samples were passed through the AgNP and CuNP paper sheets in a simple gravity-flow percolation experiment, which has been described previously.…”

Neighborhood diversity of potentially pathogenic bacteria in drinking water from the city of Maroua, Cameroon

“…Efforts to increase the access to quality drinking water have grown in the recent past, driven in part by the motivation of developing countries to achieve development targets set through the Millennium Development Goals (Demarest et al 2013). Yet as many clean water access programs have discovered, increasing the access to clean drinking water for the over 700 million people in the world who still lack it is not a simple task (WHO & UNICEF 2014).…”