Assessment of Implementation Efficiency of the System Approach to Ensuring Safety of Public Drinking and Recreational Water Use on the Example of the Voronezh Region

Abstract

Background. Implementation of the Federal Clean Water Project within the National Housing and Urban Environment Project was based on the results of numerous health studies conducted within the framework of functioning of the interdepartmental system of public health monitoring and introduction of the risk-based approach into sanitary and epidemiological surveillance. In this regard, there was a need to develop a comprehensive approach to securing safety of drinking and recreational water use and assessing efficiency of implemented solutions. Objective. To assess efficiency of implementation of a system approach to ensuring safety of public drinking and recreational water use on the example of the Voronezh Region. Materials and methods. The study included laboratory testing of water quality in places of recreational water usage, drinking water quality assessment followed by a health risk assessment, a comprehensive evaluation of the extent of sanitary and epidemiological problems in drinking water supply systems, an online questionnaire-based survey of regional residents on tap water quality, a correlation analysis to establish the relationship between population health and water quality, and experimental studies to assess migration of organic compounds from polymer containers into bottled drinking water. Results. Challenges of recreational water use are associated with poor quality of surface water in terms of chemical (ammonium ion, nitrates, phosphates, and biochemical oxygen demand) and microbiological water quality parameters. Priority indices of drinking water quality in centralized water supply systems include the contents of nitrates, fluorine, boron, and iron, which are unacceptable in terms of non-carcinogenic risk (HQ > 1). In disadvantaged areas, water quality in centralized drinking water supply systems is considered “extremely poor”. The online survey demonstrated that the majority of the population (30.7 %) prefers to use water filter jugs to treat tap water. We observed significant correlations between the quality of tap and surface waters and disease incidence rates in the population. We also obtained new data on migration of organic compounds from polymer containers intended for drinking water storage and bottling in case of storage temperature excursions. Conclusion. Our findings served as the basis for the proposed algorithm of implementing a system approach to securing safety of recreational and drinking water use and for evaluating the effectiveness of implemented solutions.