In their Invited Feature Article entitled “The role of wetland microinvertebrates in spreading human diseases”, S. B. Neogi, S. Yamasaki, M. Alam and R. J. Lara address the important issue of the rising trend in waterborne disease incidences due to climatic changes and human activities. Human activities around natural and constructed wetlands in both developing and developed countries impact on the dynamics of human pathogens occurring in the wetlands. To preserve the wetlands in view of this threat to human health and the hostility to the wetlands that it can generate in the local population, a management policy is needed that incorporates ecohydrological tools and other eco-friendly strategies to control microinvertebrate populations and waterborne pathogens. Targeted research is needed to increase our ability to adopt timely and effective intervention strategies to reduce the increasing burden of waterborne diseases.

The editors