Abstract
The United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that drinking water is essential to the realization of all human rights in a 2010 resolution. Supporting and strengthening the quality infrastructure in countries throughout the world guarantees more reliable water quality analyses, thus reducing the risks to consumers’ health. The present paper describes a multilateral cooperation project developed in Nicaragua to improve the country's quality infrastructure and, in turn, the quality control of drinking water. The project was developed with the support of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) from the Inter-American Metrology System (SIM), the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the participation of research institutes and laboratories in Nicaragua. Several mechanisms such as awareness seminars, workshops, metrological screenings, peer review of the laboratories’ quality systems, and organizing proficiency testing (PT) were used to successfully achieve the cooperation goal. As a result, technical infrastructure for the organization of PT rounds in Nicaragua was implemented to evaluate the relevant physicochemical parameters such as pH, chloride (Cl−), and nitrate (NO3−) in drinking water. The results from the PT rounds which took place during the two-year cooperation project showed substantial improvement in the performances of the participating laboratories, and therefore, in their measurement methods. Finally, this article shows how multilateral cooperation projects can strengthen the quality infrastructure, improving and ensuring the quality control of drinking water.
Highlights
Chemical compounds, ions and other C8H5KO4 Potassium hydrogen phthalate Cl− Chloride ion Na2B4O7·10H2O Sodium tetraborate decahydrate NaCl Sodium chloride NaNO3 Sodium nitrate NO3− Nitrate ion KNO3 Potassium nitrate pH Potential of hydrogen
This discrepancy encouraged the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB, from its German acronym) and the Costa Rican Metrology Laboratory (LACOMET, from its Spanish acronym), with the collaboration of the Research Center for Aquatic Resources of Nicaragua (CIRA/UNAN, from its Spanish acronym) and the Nicaraguan National Metrology Laboratory (LANAMET, from its Spanish acronym), to develop a multilateral cooperation project to strengthen the metrological infrastructure of Nicaragua to assure the quality of drinking water
It was shown that multilateral cooperation projects in the field of metrology can be successful and that using proficiency testing to measure the improvement and the impact associated with the project, and to ensure the maintenance of project benefits like the continuous control of measurement quality is important
Summary
Ions and other C8H5KO4 Potassium hydrogen phthalate Cl− Chloride ion Na2B4O7·10H2O Sodium tetraborate decahydrate NaCl Sodium chloride NaNO3 Sodium nitrate NO3− Nitrate ion KNO3 Potassium nitrate pH Potential of hydrogen. Variables n Number of replicates, laboratories or elements ss Between-sample standard deviation u Standard uncertainty x* Robust mean xgrav Gravimetric preparation mean xhom Homogeneity study mean xi Reported result of the ith participant xpt Assigned value for the RM used as PT item xstb Stability study mean zi; z′i z-Score and z′-score performance statistics σpt Standard deviation for proficiency assessment
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