Christin Müller: The multifaced consequences of contaminated water on epidemics and economic structures

Abstract.

Even nowadays, many people have no access to sanitation and clean water. However, this access is essential since many diseases are also transmitted through water. This work explores the effects of waterborne diseases on epidemics and economic structures. It shows how contaminated water affects economic structures. Starting with a simple SIR compartment model, we will extend it by a water compartment, describing the pathogen concentration in the water with additional transmission paths. Furthermore, we will compute the basic reproduction number, $\mathcal{R}_0$, and equilibrium points. We will use the similarity of simpler SIS models and the neoclassical growth model to combine them into a disease-economic growth model. In a bifurcation diagram, we will see that it is important to improve several parameters in life and that, due to heterogeneity, not every individual will experience the same situation. We then compute a waterborne disease-economic model and obtain that the outcome is worse than in the coupled model without water pathogen transmission. Hence, improving access to sanitation and clean water improves the economy and epidemical progress.