Desert Water Sources and Vector Adaptation

Abstract

Water in desert is synonymous to the survival of man. The very existence of animal and plant life in deserts depends on the presence of water, grossly abysmal though, earning it a befitting sobriquet, “Water is a desert’s gold” or, more philosophically, “Like water in the desert is wisdom to the soul.” Water is considered rarest of the rare commodity in the desert, and in the Thar Desert, where water is regarded as a source of wealth that is more precious than gold, even marriages of young girls are settled by assuring first about the availability of water in the prospective groom’s village or hamlet. In other words, life in the desert is a “continuous struggle” and is but mere nought without the water source. And now the same water, when mismanaged, is the inexorable source of this malicious disease, malaria! One of the most dangerous transmitters of Plasmodium parasites to humans is the mosquito, Anopheles stephensi, equipped with special attributions to adapt to inimical xeric environments, on the one hand, and high propensity toward feeding on human blood and potential to transmit copiously both P. falciparum and P. vivax in the desert, on the other.