Impacts of extreme weather on drinking water safety in urban and rural areas and control strategies

Climate change is altering the Earth's water cycle system. The resulting three extreme weather events—heatwaves, droughts, and extreme precipitation—impacts urban and rural water security through multi-layered mechanisms. A primary structural disparity exists between urban and rural systems: while urban areas benefit from comprehensive and standardized pipe networks that ensure terminal water quality, rural areas often suffer from "last mile" vulnerability due to inadequate infrastructure and outdated purification facilities. Extreme weather can directly alter the microbial community structure, concentrations of chemical pollutants and physicochemical properties of source water. These alterations interfere with the efficiency of water treatment processes and ultimately compromise the integrity of distribution systems. Because distribution networks often lack real-time monitoring and adaptive response capabilities, they have emerged as the most vulnerable link in the "water source-water treatment-distribution system" chain. Based on a systematic analysis of these chain-wide impacts, this paper proposed a series of control strategies, including security frameworks based on multi-model coupling and water source protection measures, improvement of water treatment technologies, optimization of distribution systems, and development of new water quality monitoring methods. These strategies aim to enhance the climate adaptability of urban and rural drinking water systems through multi-dimensional intervention, providing a theoretical basis for constructing climate-resilient water infrastructure.