Water Quality In Rural Communities Research Articles

Assessing drinking water quality based on water quality indices, human health risk, and burden of disease attributable to heavy metals in rural communities of Yazd County, Iran, 2015–2021

The water quality indices, health risk, and burden of disease attributable to heavy metals in rural communities of Yazd County, Iran during 2015–2021 were studied. The drinking water quality index (DWQI) based on 27 parameters (including heavy metals) and heavy metal pollution index (HPI) were used for assessing drinking water quality. The health risk and burden of disease from heavy metals in drinking water were estimated in terms of hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI), incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR), and disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Based on the DWQI scores by community, the drinking water quality in rural communities of Yazd County was characterized as good for 61 %, fair for 25 %, marginal for 2 %, and poor for 12 %. The distribution of the rural communities into the HPI categories was as follows: 43 % for excellent, 36 % for good, 14 % for poor, and 7 % for unsuitable. In about 20 % of the rural communities, the average HI level of heavy metals was higher than the boundary limit of one. The highest average HQ level at the county level was related to arsenic (As) to be 0.44. In all the communities, the total ILCR values of the heavy metals were in the category of significant increased cancer risk (10−6 to 10−4). At the county level, As and cadmium (Cd) exhibited the two highest cancer risk levels to be 1.96 × 10−4 and 1.87 × 10−4 for ILCR, respectively. The DALY rate (per 100,000 people) induced by exposure to the heavy metals via drinking water was 13.9, which was considered relatively high as compared to that of other drinking water pollutants obtained in the previous studies. The drinking water quality improvement through decreasing Cd and As levels below the standard values can drastically reduce the attributable burden of disease and promote the public health in the rural communities.

Surface water quality in rural communities in the state of Goiás during the dry season and its relationship with land use and occupation

Resumo Os diferentes usos e ocupações do solo podem influenciar na qualidade da água e afetar a vida da população, principalmente daquela que habita o meio rural. Por residir sob condições de vulnerabilidade socioambiental, faz-se necessário monitorar a qualidade dos recursos hídricos para prevenir doenças. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a qualidade das águas superficiais em comunidades rurais e tradicionais do estado de Goiás por meio do Índice de Qualidade da Água de Bascarán (IQAB), avaliando os efeitos do uso e ocupação do solo preponderantes em cada localidade. Amostras de água bruta dos mananciais foram coletadas de forma pontual, na estiagem. Foi verificada a presença de agrotóxicos por análise cromatográfica, sem quantificação, e foram avaliados 11 parâmetros físico-químicos e microbiológicos. Os resultados demonstraram que o IQAB variou de bom a agradável. A classificação da qualidade da água como “agradável” foi relacionada estatisticamente com a alta incidência de área de pastagem (> 80%), e a classificação como “boa” com o percentual de agricultura inferior a 30%. Os principais usos e ocupações do solo foram florestas, pastagens e agricultura. Os parâmetros cor aparente, coliformes termotolerantes e oxigênio dissolvido também indicaram a contaminação dos cursos d’água. A detecção de agrotóxicos com alto grau de toxicidade nos recursos hídricos analisados, principalmente em dois mananciais (córregos Facada e Sucuapara), colocam em risco a saúde humana no meio rural, mesmo que em condições de pequenas exposições. O carbofurano, proibido desde 2017, foi detectado no rio Araguaia, nas proximidades da comunidade Itacaiú, sendo necessário alertar o governo local, moradores e turistas que utilizam o rio Araguaia para fins diversificados.

Retraction: Water Supply 21 (2), 878–885: Assessment of effectiveness of water safety plans (WSP) on water quality in rural communities of Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria, Azubuike S. Ekwere, Oyonga A. Oyonga and Maingaila M. Banda, doi: 10.2166/ws.2020.353

Retraction: <i>Water Supply</i> 21 (2), 878–885: Assessment of effectiveness of water safety plans (WSP) on water quality in rural communities of Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria, Azubuike S. Ekwere, Oyonga A. Oyonga and Maingaila M. Banda, doi: 10.2166/ws.2020.353

Retracted: Assessment of effectiveness of water safety plans (WSP) on water quality in rural communities of Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria

Abstract Water Supply issues a formal retraction relation to the above article by Azubuike S. Ekwere et al. The publisher issues this retraction due to concerns over the originality of the authors’ work.

A comparative assessment of domestic water quality in rural communities of southeast Nigeria

A comparative assessment of domestic water quality in rural communities of southeast Nigeria

Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal.

Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water is a global challenge, especially in rural areas. This research aimed to assess the effectiveness of a risk-based strategy to improve drinking water safety for five gravity-fed piped schemes in rural communities of the Mid-Western Region of Nepal. The strategy was based on establishing community-led monitoring of the microbial water quality and the sanitary status of the schemes. The interventions examined included field-robust laboratories, centralized data management, targeted infrastructure improvements, household hygiene and filter promotion, and community training. The results indicate a statistically significant improvement in the microbial water quality eight months after intervention implementation, with the share of taps and household stored water containers meeting the international guidelines increasing from 7% to 50% and from 17% to 53%, respectively. At the study endline, all taps had a concentration of <10 CFU Escherichia coli/100 mL. These water quality improvements were driven by scheme-level chlorination, improved hygiene behavior, and the universal uptake of household water treatment. Sanitary inspection tools did not predict microbial water quality and, alone, are not sufficient for decision making. Implementation of this risk-based water safety strategy in remote rural communities can support efforts towards achieving universal water safety.

Hydraulic design to optimize the treatment capacity of Multi-Stage Filtration units

Multi-Stage Filtration (MSF) can provide a robust treatment alternative for surface water sources of variable water quality in rural communities at low operation and maintenance costs. MSF is a combination of Slow Sand Filters (SSFs) and Pre-treatment systems. The general objective of this research was to optimize the treatment capacity of MSF. A pilot plant study was undertaken to meet this objective. The pilot plant was monitored for a continuous 98 days from commissioning till the end of the project. Three main stages of MSF namely: The Dynamic Gravel Filter (DGF), Horizontal-flow Roughing Filter (HRF) and SSF were identified, designed and built. The response of the respective MSF units in removal of selected parameters guiding drinking water quality such as microbiological (Faecal and Total coliform), Suspended Solids, Turbidity, PH, Temperature, Iron and Manganese was investigated. The benchmark was the Kenya Bureau (KEBS) and World Health Organization (WHO) Standards for drinking water quality. With respect to microbiological raw water quality improvement, MSF units achieved on average 98% Faecal and 96% Total coliform removal. Results obtained indicate that implementation of MSF in rural communities has the potential to increase access to portable water to the rural populace with a probable consequent decrease in waterborne diseases. With a reduced down time due to illness, more time would be spent in undertaking other economic activities.

A modified drinking water quality index (DWQI) for assessing drinking source water quality in rural communities of Khuzestan Province, Iran

We reconsidered the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index (CCME WQI) to achieve an efficient drinking water quality index (DWQI) for assessment of drinking source water quality in rural communities of Khuzestan Province, Iran in 2009–2013. In contribution with a panel of water quality experts, the CCME WQI was mainly modified by four changes: (1 and 2) assigning weight factors for input parameters and index factors, (3) modifying excursion concept for carcinogens and bioaccumulative pollutants and (4) removing effect of unequal measurements of input parameters. The DWQI characterizes the drinking source water quality through comparing the measured values of input parameters with relevant benchmarks. The DWQI score (from 0 to 100) classifies the water quality in five categories as poor (0–54.9), marginal (55.0–69.9), fair (70.0–84.9), good (85.0–94.9) and excellent (95.0–100). Based on the DWQI, the temporal changes of the rural drinking source water quality were not significant; while the spatial variations of the water quality were considerable across the province, so the DWQI scores in the northern counties were higher than that in the southern ones. At the county level, the highest and lowest average scores of the DWQI (±standard deviation: SD) were observed in Izeh and Shadegan to be 90±5 and 69±10, respectively. Based on the DWQI, proportions of the drinking water sources with the excellent, good, fair, marginal and poor qualities were determined to be 6.7, 59.1, 26.2, 7.8 and 0.1%, respectively. Turbidity and Ryznar Index (RI) were introduced respectively as the health-based and esthetic parameters with the most violations (22.7 and 63.2%, respectively). The results of the case study and sensitivity analysis indicated that the DWQI is a simple, flexible, stable and reliable index and could be used as an effective tool to characterize drinking source water quality.

Characterisation of Nanoporous Gold for Use in a Dissolved Oxygen Sensing Application

A nanoporous gold (NPG) microdisc array in a three-electrode electrochemical cell arrangement has been fabricated and characterised for a dissolved oxygen sensing application. The device will be used for monitoring of drinking water quality in rural communities in India, where there is a need for a miniaturised, low-cost dissolved oxygen sensor. The NPG microdisc array exhibits improved electrochemical responses compared to a planar gold microdisc array, owing to its extended surface area. In 1 mM ferrocene carboxylic acid, the experimental limiting currents obtained are twice as large as the theoretical limiting current for a planar gold microarray. A 252-nm-thick NPG layer resulted in a limiting current of 627 nA (compared to the estimated current of 295 nA). The voltammetric behaviour in water samples from a pilot site in India was investigated for increasing oxygen content, and a comparison was made with a macrodisc gold electrode and an unmodified microdisc array. The NPG microdisc array demonstrated improved characteristics over both devices and exhibited a higher correlation (average value 0.925) compared with the unmodified array (0.819) and macrodisc (0.870). An improvement in signal-to-noise ratio was also observed to be 12.349 versus 5.259 (microelecrode array) and 5.604 (macroelectrode). The response time for the NPG microdisc array versus a commercial dissolved oxygen sensor showed a faster response time of 20 versus 40 s.

Removal of waterborne bacteria from surface water and groundwater by cost-effective household water treatment systems (HWTS): A sustainable solution for improving water quality in rural communities of Africa

In this study 5 household water-treatment devices/systems (HWTS) were constructed using inexpensive local materials (sand, gravel, zeolites and clays). They included the silver-impregnated porous pot filter (SIPP), the ceramic candle filter (CCF), the conventional biosand filter (BSF-S), a modified biosand filter with zeolites (BSF-Z), and a bucket filter (BF).Their ability to remove turbidity and pathogenic bacteria (Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhimurium and Shigella dysenteriae) from synthetic sterile water, groundwater and surface-water sources was evaluated. The flow rates ranged from 0.05 ℓ·h-1 to 2.49 ℓ·h-1 for SIPP; 1 ℓ·h-1 to 4 ℓ·h-1 for CCF; 0.81 ℓ·h-1 to 6.84 ℓ·h-1 for BSF-S; 1.74 ℓ·h-1 to 19.2 ℓ·h-1 for BSF-Z; and from 106.5 ℓ·h-1 to 160.5 ℓ·h-1 for BF. The highest (64% to 98% (0.74 to 1.08 NTU)) and lowest (14% to 76% (2.91 to 7.19 NTU)) average percentage turbidity removals were noted for SIPP and BF, respectively. The SIPP was the only device that consistently removed 100% of all target pathogens throughout the study. Its performance was found to be significantly superior (p&lt;0.05) compared to that of the other four devices. Sixty (60%) to 100% bacterial removals were observed for BSF-S; 90% to 100% for BSF-Z; 90% to 100% for CCF; and 40% to 99.9% for BF. Based on the findings of this study the SIPP can be recommended for use by rural communities as it consistently produced high-quality water that complied with the SANS 241 turbidity and microbiological limits for drinking water.Keywords: safe drinking water, household water treatment, waterborne pathogens

Geochemical evidence for possible natural migration of Marcellus Formation brine to shallow aquifers in Pennsylvania

The debate surrounding the safety of shale gas development in the Appalachian Basin has generated increased awareness of drinking water quality in rural communities. Concerns include the potential for migration of stray gas, metal-rich formation brines, and hydraulic fracturing and/or flowback fluids to drinking water aquifers. A critical question common to these environmental risks is the hydraulic connectivity between the shale gas formations and the overlying shallow drinking water aquifers. We present geochemical evidence from northeastern Pennsylvania showing that pathways, unrelated to recent drilling activities, exist in some locations between deep underlying formations and shallow drinking water aquifers. Integration of chemical data (Br, Cl, Na, Ba, Sr, and Li) and isotopic ratios ((87)Sr/(86)Sr, (2)H/H, (18)O/(16)O, and (228)Ra/(226)Ra) from this and previous studies in 426 shallow groundwater samples and 83 northern Appalachian brine samples suggest that mixing relationships between shallow ground water and a deep formation brine causes groundwater salinization in some locations. The strong geochemical fingerprint in the salinized (Cl > 20 mg/L) groundwater sampled from the Alluvium, Catskill, and Lock Haven aquifers suggests possible migration of Marcellus brine through naturally occurring pathways. The occurrences of saline water do not correlate with the location of shale-gas wells and are consistent with reported data before rapid shale-gas development in the region; however, the presence of these fluids suggests conductive pathways and specific geostructural and/or hydrodynamic regimes in northeastern Pennsylvania that are at increased risk for contamination of shallow drinking water resources, particularly by fugitive gases, because of natural hydraulic connections to deeper formations.

Removal of Escherichia coli and faecal coliforms from surface water and groundwater by household water treatment devices/systems: a sustainable solution for improving water quality in rural communities of the Southern African development community region.

There is significant evidence that household water treatment devices/systems (HWTS) are capable of dramatically improving microbially contaminated water quality. The purpose of this study was to examine five filters [(biosand filter-standard (BSF-S); biosand filter-zeolite (BSF-Z); bucket filter (BF); ceramic candle filter (CCF); and silver-impregnated porous pot (SIPP)] and evaluate their ability to improve the quality of drinking water at the household level. These HWTS were manufactured in the workshop of the Tshwane University of Technology and evaluated for efficiency to remove turbidity, faecal coliforms and Escherichia coli from multiple water source samples, using standard methods. The flow rates ranged from 0.05 L/h to 2.49 L/h for SIPP, 1 L/h to 4 L/h for CCF, 0.81 L/h to 6.84 L/h for BSF-S, 1.74 L/h to 19.2 L/h and 106.5 L/h to 160.5 L/h for BF The turbidity of the raw water samples ranged between 2.17 and 40.4 NTU. The average turbidity obtained after filtration ranged from 0.6 to 8 NTU (BSF-S), 1 to 4 NTU (BSF-Z), 2 to 11 NTU (BF), and from 0.6 to 7 NTU (CCF) and 0.7 to 1 NTU for SIPP. The BSF-S, BSF-Z and CCF removed 2 to 4 log10 (99% to 100%) of coliform bacteria, while the BF removed 1 to 3 log (90% to 99.9%) of these bacteria. The performance of the SIPP in removing turbidity and indicator bacteria (>5 log10, 100%) was significantly higher compared to that of the other HWTS (p < 0.05). The findings of this study indicate that the SIPP can be an effective and sustainable HWTS for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) rural communities, as it removed the total concentration of bacteria from test water, can be manufactured using locally available materials, and is easy to operate and to maintain.

Impact on diarrhoeal illness of a community educational intervention to improve drinking water quality in rural communities in Puerto Rico

BackgroundWaterborne disease is a major risk for small water supplies in rural settings. This study was done to assess the impact of an educational intervention designed to improve water quality and estimate the contribution of water to the incidence of diarrhoeal disease in poor rural communities in Puerto Rico a two-part study was undertaken.MethodsAn educational intervention was delivered to communities relying on community water supplies. This intervention consisted of student operators and administrators supervising and assisting community members who voluntarily "operate" these systems. These voluntary operators had no previous training and were principally concerned with seeing that some water was delivered. The quality of that water was not something they either understood or addressed. The impact of this intervention was measured through water sampling for standard bacteriological indicators and a frank pathogen. In addition, face-to-face epidemiological studies designed to determine the base-line occurrence of diarrhoeal disease in the communities were conducted. Some 15 months after the intervention a further epidemiological study was conducted in both the intervention communities and in control communities that had not received any intervention.ResultsDiarrhoeal illness rates over a four week period prior to the intervention were 3.5%. Salmonella was isolated from all of 5 distributed samples prior to intervention and from only 2 of 12 samples after the intervention. In the 15 months follow-up study, illness rates were lower in the intervention compared to control communities (2.5% vs 3.6%%) (RR = 0.70, 95%CI 0.43, 1.15), though this was not statistically significant. However, in the final Poisson regression model living in an intervention system (RR = 0.318; 95%CI 0.137 - 0.739) and owning a dog (RR = 0.597, 95%CI 0.145 - 0.962) was negatively associated with illness. Whilst size of system (RR = 1.006, 95%CI 1.001 - 1.010) and reporting problems with sewage system (RR = 2.973, 95%CI 1.539 - 5.744) were positively associated with illness.ConclusionsEducational interventions directed both at identified individuals and the community in general in small communities with poor water quality is a way of giving communities the skills and knowledge to manage their own drinking water quality. This may also have important and sustainable health benefits, though further research preferably using a randomised control trial design is needed.

Coliform status of water bodies from two districts in Ghana, west Africa: implications for rural water resources management

Investigations were conducted on the total and faecal coliform status of streams, hand-dug wells and boreholes highly patronised by communities in the West Akim and Kwaebibirem Districts, Eastern Ghana. Total coliform values obtained range from 60–2,672 cfu, 0–680 cfu and 0–128 cfu for streams, hand-dug wells and boreholes, respectively. Faecal coliform values similarly range from 31–1,988 cfu, 0–136 cfu and 0–36 cfu for streams, hand-dugs and boreholes, respectively. The data indicates that samples from streams and hand-dug wells returned high coliform counts beyond the Maximum Permissible Levels (MPL) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Some borehole water contained coliform counts above MPL. Because many rural people in the areas studied, and indeed in most areas in Ghana, depend heavily on these principal sources of water for drinking and other domestic purposes, a policy response that incorporates periodic assessment of water quality in rural communities may be appropriate. In addition, it would seem that current government and development partner programmes in the water resources sector that emphasise provision of borehole water must be integrated with land use considerations, water quality monitoring and education on environmental awareness in local communities.

Spatial Distribution of Diarrhoea and Microbial Quality of Domestic Water during an Outbreak of Diarrhoea in the Tshikuwi Community in Venda, South Africa

Total microbial quality assessment and geographical information system were used for evaluating the quality of water and the spatial distribution of diarrhoea cases in Tshikuwi, a rural community in South Africa, during an outbreak of diarrhoea. The water-abstraction points included two groundwater storage tanks, namely Tank 1 and Tank 2 and the Khandanama river. Indicator microbial counts for total coliforms, faecal coliforms, enterococci, and heterotrophic bacteria exceeded the limit for no risk as stipulated by the South African water-quality guidelines for domestic use for Tank 1 and the Khandanama river. Vibrio, Salmonella, and Shigella species were prevalent in the Khandanama river. The spatial distribution of diarrhoea cases showed a hot-spot of diarrhoea cases close to Tank 1 and the Khandanama river. Results of chi-square analysis showed that the proportion of infection from each water source was different or that infection depends on the type of water source (alpha = 0.05). The demonstrated spatial clustering of diarrhoea cases might have been influenced by the poor microbial quality of water used from Tank 1 and the Khandanama river. The results further highlight the urgent need of water-treatment facilities and monitoring of water quality in rural communities of South Africa.