Intermittent Water Supply Management, Household Adaptation, and Drinking Water Quality: A Comparative Study in Two Chinese Provinces

Shibo Lv,Xinyi Zhang,Zuan He,Zheng Li,Li Wang,Hongxing Li,Alasdair Cohen

doi:10.3390/w12051361

Abstract

Intermittent water supply (IWS) is a relatively common phenomenon across the world as well as in rural and peri-urban areas across China, though there has been little IWS-focused research from China published to date. IWS consumers typically adopt a range of strategies to cope with insufficient water supply, poor drinking water quality, and associated inconveniences. In this study, we collected a range of data from small-scale utilities and households in two IWS systems and two continuous water supply (CWS) systems, as well as from comparison groups, in Shandong and Hubei provinces. Data collection included water quality testing, interviews, and surveys on behavioral adaptations, coping strategies, water-related health perceptions, and other metrics of consumer satisfaction. Overall, we found that the IWS coping strategies employed in northern China (Shandong) were associated with generally safe, but inconvenient, water access, whereas adaptation strategies observed in southern China (Hubei) appeared to improve convenience, but not water quality. Compared to the CWS comparison groups, we did not observe significant differences in water- and sanitation-related behaviors in the IWS groups, suggesting interventions to increase adaptive and protective behaviors at the household level might further improve safe water access for households living with IWS. Overall, although the water supply infrastructure in these study areas appeared to be in relatively good condition, in contrast to reported data on IWS systems in other countries, we observed multiple risk factors associated with the water treatment and distribution processes in these IWS systems. Among policy recommendations, our results suggest that the implementation of Water Safety Plans in China would likely improve the management of drinking water treatment and, by extension, safe drinking water supply under conditions of IWS.

Highlights

Intermittent water supply (IWS)—i.e., piped water supply service delivering water to users for less than 24 h one or more days per week—is prevalent in many countries and is estimated to impact more than 300 million people globally [1]
To solve the drinking water quality problem, a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment plant was built at the village level by local government to supply households with safe drinking water, which was provided in reusable 19 L plastic bottles
We found that (1) adaptation strategies to IWS in northern China tended to yield safe but inconvenient drinking water, while adaptation strategies in southern China tended to yield convenient but unsafe drinking water; (2) no water and sanitation-related behavior changes were observed in either

Summary

Introduction

Intermittent water supply (IWS)—i.e., piped water supply service delivering water to users for less than 24 h one or more days per week—is prevalent in many countries and is estimated to impact more than 300 million people globally [1]. China where a large proportion of the rural water supply is non-continuous [2,3,4]. In much of China, water supply remains vulnerable to water shortages, increasing water supply–demand from growing populations, and increasing demand due to rapid urbanization [7,8]. IWS in China can be attributed to water shortages, insufficient local-level funding and technical support, low water consumption demand, and other technical and economic factors [9,10,11,12], though the ways in which households may adapt to conditions of IWS, and the associated impacts, are not well understood

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion