SPRINGS will improve integrated climate and health surveillance, create climate-resilient water supply systems, engage citizens and stakeholders, and use evidence-based value assessments to prioritise interventions to prevent climate-induced diarrhoeal disease. Long-term adaptive capacity and climate resilience will increase in Europe and beyond, preventing unnecessary illnesses and deaths from waterborne diarrhoeal diseases. SPRINGS started on 1 January 2024 and will run until 2029.  

Globally, diarrhoea is the third leading cause of death for children under 5. Global warming and climate extremes such as heavy precipitation, flooding, and drought contribute to increasing risks for waterborne diarrhoeal disease cases. The impact of climate extremes is already a burden to many countries worldwide, and countries in Europe and Africa have shared and underappreciated vulnerabilities. There is an urgent need to prepare and protect our water and communities from these threats.

Goals

SPRINGS will model the future impact of global climate change on local water quality and quantity and diarrheal disease outcomes. In case studies in Ghana, Tanzania, Italy, and Romania, current interactions of climate, behaviour, and water quality on pathogen-specific diarrhoeal disease risks and the safety of water supply systems will be measured. The project engages individuals and communities with insights and practices to improve risk communication and ownership. SPRINGS will work together with policymakers to design appraisal structures to assess the economic impact and value of planetary health interventions to prevent climate-related diarrhoeal disease. 

Consortium

The SPRINGS consortium consists of Amsterdam UMC, AIGHD, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, the University of Virginia, the University of Ghana, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Three o'clock, Aarhus University, the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the University of Naples, the Haydom Lutheran Hospital, AQUATIM, the University of Bucharest and RIVM.

Role of RIVM

RIVM is active in Work Package 4 of SPRINGS, which will measure the current interaction of climate, behaviour, and microbial water quality. RIVM will implement water safety plans and perform quantitative microbial risk assessment for four case study sites based on input data generated by project partners. The information and data will be shared in other work packages with project partners.  Colleagues from the RIVM Centre  for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology are involved. 

Funding

SPRINGS received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101057554