Water Consumption Per Capita and COVID-19 Indices: An Analysis with Machine-Based Learning Methods

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between water use of countries and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) data in order to establish the effect of water dynamics on COVID-19 pandemics. Material and Methods: The country-based water consumption per capita (WC) and COVID-19 indices [total cases per 1 million population (CI-C) and deaths per 1 million population (CI-D)] collected from the Worldometer website and the Global Competitiveness Scores from The Global Competitiveness Report 2019 of World Economic Forum which was accessed at the day of May 30th, 2020. The relationship between water consumption and COVID-19 incidences was evaluated with “machine learning” methods. The statistical analyses were performed with the use of R software, version 4.0.0 (R Project for Statistical Computing). Results: For a total of 138 countries, we found a positive correlation between WC and CI-C (R 0.13). For the first 20 developed countries, we found a negative correlation between WC and CI-C and CI-D (R-0.18). The USA data is completely different from other 19 analyzed countries. The correlation coefficient becomes-0.44 when the USA is excluded, compared to-0.18 for all 20 countries including the USA. Conclusion: A negative relationship between water consumption and COVID-19 incidences was found at least for a relatively homogeneous group which is comprised of mainly developed countries. Among the developed countries, USA exhibits different characteristics. In contrast, when all 138 countries were analyzed, a positive relation was found. The results can be used from various disciplines since the water and its relations with micro-systems serve one of the most important issues for our present time and future.