Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the public health challenges of international concern that are connected to the interaction between human activity, natural processes, and the broader environment, as it is mediated by rivers. The chapter is based on the premise that a One Water Basin/One Health perspective is necessary for a comprehensive appraisal of the subject, and a discussion of the latter is presented to lay the grounds for the ensuing analysis. The causal mechanisms of transboundary impact are then identified from the available empirical literature, with the aim of constructing analytical categories for assessment. The resulting categories are considered in order to be able to judge how the public health dimension of upstream–downstream interactions relates to the upstream–downstream structural disparity that fundamentally shapes relations between riparian states, and how it consequently adds to the incentive structure of international cooperation in water basin governance.
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Notes
- 1.
To clarify the terminology, water-borne diseases are caused by pathogens present in surface waters, ingested by suitable hosts; water-washed diseases are caused by the lack of water in adequate quantities for hygiene purposes, which could make such diseases preventable; water-based diseases are caused by agents (e.g. parasites such as the Guinea worm) that live a part of their lifecycle in surface waters; water-related diseases are mediated by vectors (e.g. mosquitos) that rely on the presence of water to reproduce; while water-distributed diseases are caused by contaminants in the water.
- 2.
Epidemics of other animals that share the habitat provided by riverine areas (i.e. rivers and their vicinity) could also be discussed here, but this chapter does not do so for the following two reasons: (1) other river-dwelling species are comparatively less significant from a (human) economic perspective; (2) the life and migration of non-river-dwelling species is not channelled by rivers as much as that of fish. Thus, for example, beavers, although they may give rise to considerable economic damage, are ignored here due to the first consideration in that epidemics controlling their population level may be beneficial in some areas, but not without spill-overs, for instance, in the case of increasing Giardia transmission, which can also lead to human cases of Giardiasis. Avian epidemics are ignored due to the second consideration.
- 3.
Lower levels of DO may be due to multiple factors, from higher water temperatures to a higher level of demand for biological oxygen in the presence of untreated sewage in the water.
- 4.
The Danube drainage basin can be conveniently divided into three sub-basins, as the river passes through major mountain chains at the Devin and Iron Gates, with present-day Hungary lying south of the former and north of the latter.
- 5.
The round goby can similarly accidentally penetrate fish ponds during the filling process.
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Marton, P. (2023). The Upstream–Downstream Structural Disparity and Transboundary Challenges of Public Health. In: Szálkai, K., Szalai, M. (eds) Theorizing Transboundary Waters in International Relations. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43376-4_12
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