Impacts of Extreme Weather on Microbiological Risks of Drinking Water in Coastal Cities: A Review

Purpose of Review

Extreme weather including heat waves, droughts, and extreme precipitation can impact the microbiological risks of drinking water in complex and comprehensive ways. These impacts are especially concerned with coastal cities due to the higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather. This review was aimed at summarizing these impacts from the view of different parts of drinking water systems including water sources, drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), and drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs).

Recent Findings

All extreme weather will pose microbiological threats to drinking water quality. However, the threats are realized in direct or indirect ways. In the former, the extreme weather itself can alter the microbial biomass, growth rate, activity, and tolerance. In the latter, it will first change the physicochemical water parameters and/or the performance of the water treatment processes and then impact microbes. Meantime, extreme weather can result in the induction, occurrence, and removal of emerging microbiological contaminants, thus making the situation more complicated.

Summary

This review summarized the potential impacts of extreme weather on microbiological risks of drinking water in coastal cities. It also analyzed the interactive relationship between extreme weather and microbes. However, many knowledge gaps remained for this issue. The occurrence, transportation, control, and removal mechanism/methods of microbial contaminants under the background of climate change should be further investigated.

Graphical Abstract