REVIEW article
Front. Clim.
Sec. Climate and Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fclim.2025.1646753
This article is part of the Research TopicEnvironment and Healthcare, a two-way traffic: Challenges, Impacts, and Sustainable SolutionsView all 10 articles
Waterborne diseases in flood compromised WASH conditions in Malaysia: A Planetary Health perspective
Provisionally accepted
Farah Humaira Binti Jamalludin1
Minhaz Farid Ahmed1
BIJAY HALDER1Tual Sawn Khai2
Muhammad Asaduzzaman3*- 1Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
- 2Lingnan University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 3Universitetet i Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Floods are one of the major climate events that disrupt vital built systems such as water drainage and sanitation facilities. These conditions make it extremely difficult to obtain clean water and sanitation. The lack of safe and clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) has detrimental effects on the community, for example, the spread of a wide range of infectious illnesses, particularly waterborne illnesses. This review examines the major disease spread and difficulties encountered in a compromised WASH situation in Malaysia during flood catastrophes. We reviewed the literature on the Web of Science, SciELO Citation Index, PubMed, and Scopus databases for articles published between 1972 and 2024. Among the 41 identified articles, 10 were eligible for inclusion based on writing in English, removing duplicate literature, and observing that the study was conducted in Malaysia. This study discusses these issues and the WASH framework in Malaysia. Food poisoning, cholera, hepatitis A, diarrhea, and typhoid fever are among the most common ailments that flood victims are diagnosed with. Enhancing the WASH practices and infrastructure in Malaysia is crucial for reducing the risk of these illnesses. This requires a multifaceted strategy that includes sustainable technology, community involvement, and governmental action.
Keywords: Planetary health, wash, Waterborne diseases, Flood disaster, SDG 6, Malaysia
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jamalludin, Ahmed, HALDER, Khai and Asaduzzaman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Muhammad Asaduzzaman, muhammad.asaduzzaman@medisin.uio.no
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