Interruptions In Water Supply Research Articles

Deadly acceleration in dehydration of Eucalyptus viminalis leaves coincides with high-order vein cavitation.

Xylem cavitation during drought is proposed as a major driver of canopy collapse, but the mechanistic link between hydraulic failure and leaf damage in trees is still uncertain. Here, we used the tree species manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) to explore the connection between xylem dysfunction and lethal desiccation in leaves. Cavitation damage to leaf xylem could theoretically trigger lethal desiccation of tissues by severing water supply under scenarios such as runaway xylem cavitation, or the local failure of terminal parts of the leaf vein network. To investigate the role of xylem failure in leaf death, we compared the timing of damage to the photosynthetic machinery (Fv/Fm decline) with changes in plant hydration and xylem cavitation during imposed water stress. The water potential at which Fv/Fm was observed to decline corresponded to the water potential marking a transition from slow to very rapid tissue dehydration. Both events also occurred simultaneously with the initiation of cavitation in leaf high-order veins (HOV, veins from the third order above) and the analytically derived point of leaf runaway hydraulic failure. The close synchrony between xylem dysfunction and the photosynthetic damage strongly points to water supply disruption as the trigger for desiccation of leaves in this hardy evergreen tree. These results indicate that runaway cavitation, possibly triggered by HOV network failure, is the tipping agent determining the vulnerability of E. viminalis leaves to damage during drought and suggest that HOV cavitation and runaway hydraulic failure may play a general role in determining canopy damage in plants.

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During the last decades, the world historical situation has fundamentally changed, humanity has entered the nuclear-space age. The development of civilization and society could not exclude wars and military conflicts as a means of forceful resolution of interstate, religious, ethnic and other contradictions. The way out of conflict situations with the help of weapons remains a distinctive feature of the modern era. The achievements of science and technology today are aimed not only at the development of modern production, improvement of working conditions and welfare of citizens, but also at the development of the latest types of weapons and ammunition, which increases the risks of emergency situations due to their use. Emergency situations of a military nature are associated with the consequences of the use of weapons of mass destruction or modern conventional means of destruction, during which secondary factors of damage to the population arise as a result of the destruction of nuclear and hydroelectric power plants, warehouses and storages of radioactive and toxic substances, waste oil products, explosives, highly toxic substances, toxic waste, transport and engineering communications. As a result of emergencies of a military nature, emergencies of man-made, natural, social nature, mass deaths of people and animals may arise. The dangerous sources of emergencies of a military nature include: weapons themselves, extraordinary unsanitary conditions during hostilities (a large number of corpses, disruption of the normal operation of various communal services, disruption of water supply and sewage systems, insufficient medical care, occurrence of epidemics), complex ecological and the man-made situation, the presence of high-risk enterprises (chemical enterprises, nuclear power plants, oil refineries) and the like. The article examines the characteristic features of possible modern wars and conflicts, analyzes the sources of emergency situations of a military nature, their features and possible consequences for the population and the territory of the state. In addition, an analysis of the specifics of the terrorist nature of Russia's war against Ukraine and the consequences of armed aggression for the country's territory, population, and economy was carried out.

Handwashing Practices and Associated Factors Among School Children in Kirkos and Akaki Kality Sub-Cities, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Provision of handwashing facilities and proper practices are essential for preventing fecal-oral and acute respiratory infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to assess availability of handwashing facilities and predictors to students' good hygiene practices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A mixed-methods study design was conducted in schools of Addis Ababa from January to March 2020 in 384 students, 98 school directors, 6 health clubs, and 6 school administrators. Data were collected using pretested interviewer-administered questionnaires, interview guide, and observational checklists. The quantitative data were entered into EPI Info version 7.2.2.6 and analyzed using SPSS 22.0. A bivariable at P < .2 and multivariable logistic regression analysis at P < .05 for quantitative and thematic analysis for qualitative data were used. Handwashing stations were available in 85 (86.7%) of the schools. However, 16 (16.3%) schools had neither water nor soap near the handwashing facilities while 33 (38.8%) of schools had both. There was no high school that had both soap and water. Approximately one-third (135, 35.2%) of students practiced proper handwashing, among which 89 (65.9%) were from private schools. The handwashing practices were significantly associated with gender (AOR = 2.45, 95% CI: (1.66-3.59)), having trained coordinator (AOR = 2.16, 95% CI: (1.32-2.48)) and health education program (AOR = 2.53, 95% CI: (1.73-3.59)), school ownership (AOR = 0.49, 95% CI: (0.33-0.72)), and training (AOR = 1.74, 95% CI: (1.82-3.69)). Water supply interruption, and lack of budget, adequate space, training, health education, maintenance, and coordination were the main barriers that prevent students from practicing proper handwashing. Handwashing facilities and materials provision and good handwashing practices of students were low. Moreover, providing soap and water for handwashing was insufficient to promote good hygiene practices. There should be regular hygiene education, training, maintenance, and better coordination among stakeholders to create a healthy school environment.

Ganoderma boninense classification based on near-infrared spectral data using machine learning techniques

Ganoderma boninense (G. boninense) infection reduces the productivity of oil palms and causes a severe threat to the palm oil industry. Early detection of G. boninense is vital since there is no effective treatment to stop the continuing spread of the disease unless ergosterol, a biomarker of G. boninense can be detected. There is yet a non-destructive and in-situ technique explored to detect ergosterol. Capability of NIR to detect few biomarkers such as mycotoxin and zearalenone (ZEN) has been proven to pave the way an effort to explore NIR's sensitivity towards detecting ergosterol, as discussed in this paper. A compact hand-held NIR with a measurement range of 900–1700 nm is utilized by scanning the leaves of three oil palm seedlings inoculated with G. boninense while the other three were non-inoculated from 16-weeks-old to 32-weeks-old. Significant changes of spectral reflectance have been notified occur at the wavelength of ∼1450 nm which reflectance of infected sample is higher 0.2–0.4 than healthy sample which 0.1–0.19. The diminishing of the spectral curve at approximately 1450 nm is strongly suspected to happened due to the loss of water content from the leaves since G. boninense attacks the roots and causes the disruption of water supply to the other part of plant. However, a few overlapped NIRs' spectral data between healthy and infected samples require for further validation which chemometric and machine learning (ML) classification technique are chosen. It is found the spectra of healthy samples are scattered on the negative sides of PC-1 while infected samples tend to be on a positive side with large loading coefficients marked significant discriminatory effect on healthy and infected samples at the wavelength of 1310 and 1452 nm. A PLS regression is used on NIR spectra to implement the prediction of ergosterol concentration which shows good corelation of R = 0.861 between the ergosterol concentration and oil palm NIR spectra. Four different ML algorithms are tested for prediction of G. boninense infection: K-Nearest Neighbour (kNN), Naïve Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Decision Tree (DT) are tested which depicted DT algorithm achieves a satisfactory overall performance with high accuracy up to 93.1% and F1-score of 92.6% compared to other algorithms. High accuracy shows the capability of the classification model to correctly predict the G. boninense detection while high F1-score indicates that the classification is able to validate the detection of G. boninense correctly with low misclassification rate. The result represents a significant step in the development of a non-destructive and in-situ detection system which validated by both chemometric and machine learning (ML) classification techniques.

Future Outlook of Fresh Water Supply and Demand in Selangor

Water is an essential resource for the well-being of humans as well as for ecosystems. In this regard, the increasing water scarcity areas has become one of the major problems faced by humanity. In Malaysia, Selangor is considered a water-stressed area due to the increase in water demand and limited suitable fresh water resources for treatment and distribution. The increase in population as well as urbanization and industrialization made the rivers in Selangor arguably the most polluted compared to other states. These situations result in a series of unscheduled water supply interruption over the years and negatively impact the majority of consumers. Projected water demand also indicates that the existing water supplies are not sufficient in the long run, therefore, it is deemed required to study the water demand and supply gap in Selangor to ensure the current water management is sustainable for the remote future. This paper mainly discusses on the current water production from Water Treatment Plants as well as projection of water demand which also foresee the future water deficit in Selangor. The method used in this study was based on review of secondary data acquired from available published report and website, while the assessment of water demand conducted comprise of calculation of projected population, projected domestic water demand, projected total water demand and water deficit up to year 2050. According to the result obtained, the existing water demand and supply in Selangor is 4,967 MLD, meanwhile, the projection of water demand in Selangor up to year 2050 is 7,011 MLD with the projected water deficit of 2,044 MLD. The findings of this paper are essential in water resources planning and management, particularly in terms of additional raw water supply that will be required to cater to the future water demand in Selangor.

Eco-efficiency assessment under natural and managerial disposability: an empirical application for Chilean water companies.

Getting a good understanding regarding the economic and environmental performance of water utilities is of great importance to achieve the goal of an efficient and sustainable industry. In this study, we apply the range adjusted measure (RAM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the integrated (production and environmental) efficiency of several water utilities located in Chile. Integrated efficiency is evaluated using the concepts of natural and managerial disposability. This approach further allows us to quantify the contribution of each input and undesirable product on efficiency scores. The results highlighted that the Chilean water industry showed high levels of production and environmental efficiency over time. Under natural disposability, water utilities could control production costs to reduce water leakage and unplanned water supply interruptions by 3.3% on average. Under managerial disposability, water utilities could further cut down undesirable outputs by 1.4% on average by adopting best managerial practices. On average, potential savings in operating costs, employment, water leakage, and unplanned water supply interruptions were higher for concessionary utilities as they showed slightly lower efficiency scores than full private utilities.

Estimating performance and savings of water leakages and unplanned water supply interruptions in drinking water providers

Water leakages and unplanned water supply interruptions are relevant variables in the provision of drinking water since they directly impact customers and the economic and environmental performance of water companies. For the first time, in this study, we estimated specific efficiency scores for these two quality-of-service variables using the multi-directional data envelopment analysis technique for a sample of 21 Chilean water companies over the 2007–2018 period. Unlike previous studies, this methodological approach allowed us to estimate potential savings for both quality-of-service variables. The results indicate that the Chilean water industry could improve its efficiency over water leakage and unplanned water supply interruption by 28.6% and 52.5%, respectively, while supplying the same volume of drinking water. It is estimated that water companies could save around 48 million cubic metres of drinking water per year. Savings on unplanned water supply interruptions for the Chilean water industry are estimated to be at the level of 62,419 h per year.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE SCIENCE OF THE INLAND WATERS IN THE NORTHERN OF RIO DE JANEIRO STATE: CYANOBACTERIAL BLOOMS IN THE LOWER PARAÍBA DO SUL RIVER

The 1993 inauguration of UENF (Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro) has made research on aquatic ecosystems in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro State a reality, most notably that pertaining to the lower Paraíba do Sul River (PSR) and associated ecosystems (e.g. mangroves, coastal lagoons and coastal zone). These researches were, in part, leveraged by the scientific training provided by Dr Francisco Esteves. Within the municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes, the PSR has been monitored with biweekly samplings since 1994 by UENF in a long-term project highlighting the river’s role in supplying water for 90% of the municipality’s population. However, potamological conditions such as low outflow and eutrophication have fostered episodic cyanobacterial blooms, especially during the dry season. One such event caused water supply interruptions in the municipalities located in the lower PSR basin, a fact that highlights the importance of pluriannual monitoring of its hydrochemical conditions.

Mental Health Services Utilization by the Population That Suffered Water Supply Interruption Following Mariana Dam Failure (Brazil).

Disasters may have major impacts to mental health and to the utilization of mental health services (MHS). Moreover, these effects may be worsened by the preclusion of access to basic services following the event. The aim of this study is to evaluate the utilization of public MHS by the population that suffered water supply interruption following the Mariana Dam Failure in Brazil, 2015. We conducted an Interrupted Time Series analyzing secondary health data from the municipalities that faced water supply interruption, comparing it to data from the other municipalities of Minas Gerais state. We found a higher immediate (RR: 1.78; 95% CI: 1.25-2.53) and gradual (RR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.03-1.06) change in the rate of mental health visits (MHV) in the affected population following the event, whereas there was an immediate fall (RR: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.29-0.59) followed by a higher gradual increase (RR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.02-1.06) in the rate of hospital admissions (HA) in the affected population. The results suggest that there was an increase in the utilization of public MHS by the population that suffered water supply interruption following the disaster.

Water quality assessment and evaluation of human health risk of drinking water from source to point of use at Thulamela municipality, Limpopo Province

Water quality has been linked to health outcomes across the world. This study evaluated the physico-chemical and bacteriological quality of drinking water supplied by the municipality from source to the point of use at Thulamela municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa; assessed the community practices regarding collection and storage of water and determined the human health risks associated with consumption of the water. Assessment of water quality was carried out on 114 samples. Questionnaires were used to determine the community’s practices of water transportation from source to the point-of-use and storage activities. Many of the households reported constant water supply interruptions and the majority (92.2%) do not treat their water before use. While E. coli and total coliform were not detected in the water samples at source (dam), most of the samples from the street taps and at the point of use (household storage containers) were found to be contaminated with high levels of E. coli and total coliform. The levels of E. coli and total coliform detected during the wet season were higher than the levels detected during the dry season. Trace metals’ levels in the drinking water samples were within permissible range of both the South African National Standards and World Health Organisation. The calculated non-carcinogenic effects using hazard quotient toxicity potential and cumulative hazard index of drinking water through ingestion and dermal pathways were less than unity, implying that consumption of the water could pose no significant non-carcinogenic health risk. Intermittent interruption in municipal water supply and certain water transportation and storage practices by community members increase the risk of water contamination. We recommend a more consistent supply of treated municipal water in Limpopo province and training of residents on hygienic practices of transportation and storage of drinking water from the source to the point of use.

Water quality assessment and pollution threat to safe water supply for three river basins in Malaysia

Pollution in raw water poses increasing threats to safe water supply in many developing countries. Therefore, a comprehensive water quality assessment is essential to provide various stakeholders the information to deal with this problem. This study applies chemometrics to interpret a recent 10-year water quality data from three major river basins (Selangor River basin, Langat River basin, and Klang River basin) frequented by water supply disruptions in Selangor, Malaysia. We present the application of selected chemometrics approaches, namely agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis, principal component analysis, factor analysis and Man-Kendall trend analysis. The results showed three spatial groups of monitoring stations with similar land use practices and pollution characteristics. Besides spatial differences, periodic variations were observed when similar pollutants exhibited different pollution loads during rainy and dry periods. We found that nitrogen species, total suspended solids, and dissolved solids represented the major pollution loads in the studied basins. The results further confirmed a significant increasing trend in ammonia pollution. Our study demonstrates how ammonia pollutant is likely to pose a threat to water supply and highlights the vulnerability of Selangor's water resource system to water pollution. The results of this study could facilitate decision making towards more holistic strategies, specifically, incorporating ammonia treatment facilities into the conventional water treatment plant will help achieve smooth water supply operations.

Analysis of Complaints in the Comments Section on Air Selangor's Facebook Page

The speech act of complaints has often caught the attention of researchers in many perspectives. Most previous studies on complaints relied on discourse completion task (DCT) data, and some used ethnographically obtained data. Nowadays, with the widespread use of the Internet, many human affairs have also shifted to online, including complaints. However, there is still not much research done on complaint speech act in an online setting. Therefore, this study has utilized the data of complaints in the comments section on the Facebook page of Syarikat Air Selangor. A total of 74 complaints were obtained from 200 comments in the comments section on Air Selangor's Facebook page. Water consumers make complaints as a response to a notification of water supply disruptions in the Klang Valley. The data were analyzed using the framework introduced by Depraetere et al. (2020) and Decock &amp; Depraetere (2018). The results showed that complainers preferred using only one and two components, namely the strategy of complaints and dissatisfaction or a combination of both. The results proved that the complainers employ more implicit complaint strategies and less explicit strategies. Although this study was conducted in an online setting, it was found that the complaints made were not too aggressive and did not use many harsh words. Most complaints only stop as far as component B, which is dissatisfaction and do not escalate further.

Using a digital twin to explore water infrastructure impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the daily pattern of activities changed dramatically for people across the globe, as they socially distanced and worked remotely. Changes in daily routines created changes in water consumption patterns. Significant changes in water demands can affect the operation of water distribution systems, resulting in new patterns of flow, with implications for water age, pressure, and energy consumption. This research develops a digital twin to couple Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) data with a hydraulic model to assess impacts on infrastructure due to changes in water demands associated with the COVID-19 pandemic for a case study. Using 2019 and COVID-19 modeling scenarios, the hydraulic model was executed to evaluate changes to water quality based on water age, pressure across nodes in the network, and the energy required by the system to distribute potable water. A water supply interruption event was modeled as a water main break to assess network resiliency for 2019 and COVID-19 demands. A digital twin provides the capabilities to explore and visualize emerging consumption patterns and their effects on the functioning of water systems, providing valuable analyses for water utility managers and insight for optimizing infrastructure operations and planning for long-term impacts.

Analyzing the factors and effects of water supply disruption in Penang Island, Malaysia

Water resources are nature's most precious gift in life on this earth. Humans need to have ethics in environmental development to caring the environment. The rapid development to meet human needs and requirements has caused the source of clean water supply to be more limited and threatened. This study aims to analyze the factors and effects of water supply disruption to the community in Penang Island. This study employs a quantitative approach, with a survey consisting of 100 questionnaires distributed to respondents. The study also uses an informal interview method that records some of the respondents’ thoughts and opinions about the research issues. Respondents were selected randomly to be involved in the data collection process. The results of the data were analyzed to obtain the value of frequency, percentage, mean, std. deviation, and descriptive analysis. According to the study's findings, the most influential factor of disruption of water supply consumption is a lack of capacity of the water treatment plants, which recorded a total mean=4.36, and the least influential factor is weaknesses in water management, which recorded a total mean=3.48. The most dominant effect of water supply disruption is the disease that affects health, with a mean score of 4.30, the least influential effect is a reduction in the life of flora and fauna, with a mean score of 3.61. This study has the potential to provide information to authorities and stakeholders in formulating strategies and interventions for the well-being of the community. The recommendation for future studies is to further expand the scope of the study which is to add more survey stations and the number of samples to describe the actual population. Keywords: Disruption factors, effects, Penang Island, water supply

System Analysis of Wildfire-Water Supply Risk in Colorado, USA with Monte Carlo Wildfire and Rainfall Simulation.

Water supply impairment from increased contaminant mobilization and transport after wildfire is a major concern for communities that rely on surface water from fire-prone watersheds. In this article we present a Monte Carlo simulation method to quantify the likelihood of wildfire impairing water supplies by combining stochastic representations of annual wildfire and rainfall activity. Water quality impairment was evaluated in terms of turbidity limits for treatment by modeling wildfire burn severity, postfire erosion, sediment transport, and suspended sediment dilution in receiving waterbodies. Water supply disruption was analyzed at the system level based on the impairment status of water supply components and their contributions to system performance. We used this approach to assess wildfire-water supply impairment and disruption risks for a system of water supply reservoirs and diversions in the Front Range Mountains of Colorado, USA. Our results indicate that wildfire may impair water quality in a concerning 15.7-19.4% of years for diversions from large watersheds. Reservoir impairment should be rare for off-network reservoirs-ranging from at most 0.01% of years for large reservoirs to nearly 2% of years for small reservoirs. System redundancy meaningfully reduced disruption risk for alternative conveyance routes (4.3-25.0% reduction) and almost eliminated disruption risk for a pair of substitutable terminal sources (99.9% reduction). In contrast, dependency among reservoirs on a conveyance route nearly doubled risk of disruption. Our results highlight the importance of considering water system characteristics when evaluating wildfire-water supply risks.

Water supply interruptions in Umzinto Water System: Ugu District, South Africa

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa states that all citizens have a right to access adequate food and water. However, water services provision has remained one of the biggest challenges faced by most municipalities. The Umzinto water supply system under the auspices of the Ugu District Municipality (Ugu DM) was selected as the study area to evaluate the water supply interruption frequency. Data range for the study was from 01 November 2015 to 31 December 2019. The highest number of interruptions was experienced in Umzinto town, Uswani, Amangamazi and Amandawe areas. The infrastructure was outdated and needed to be replaced as a matter of urgency. Other interventions that needed to be implemented were recommended included consumer awareness programme, consumer enumeration and connection, billing and collection and routine maintenance. The lack of planned maintenance for some of the infrastructure had led to it deteriorating to a level where it had become too expensive to maintain and repair, but the only sustainable solution was replacement. Key words: Water supply, access, water services provision, interruptions, aged infrastructure, operations and maintenance, sustainable, municipalities, spatial and temporal trends, Umzinto Water Supply System.

Household Water Filtration Technology to Ensure Safe Drinking Water Supply in the Langat River Basin, Malaysia

Populations in the Langat River Basin, Malaysia, frequently experience water supply disruption due to the shutdown of water treatment plants (WTPs) mainly from the chemical pollution as well as point and non-point sources of pollution. Therefore, this study investigated the aluminium (Al), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) concentrations in the drinking water supply chain at the basin because of its prolonged persistence and toxic characteristics in the aquatic environment. Three replicates of water samples were collected from the river, outlets of WTPs, household tap and filtered water, respectively, in 2015, for analysis by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Higher concentration of these metals was found in household tap water than in the treated water at the WTPs; however, the concentration of these metals at the four stages of the drinking water supply chain conformed to the drinking water quality standard set by the World Health Organization. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests also found that metal concentration removal significantly varied among the eight WTPs as well as the five types of household water filtration systems. With regards to the investigated household filtered water, the distilled filtration system was found to be more effective in removing metal concentration because of better management. Therefore, a two-layer water filtration system could be introduced in the Langat River Basin to obtain safe drinking water supply at the household level.

Modeling regional impacts and resilience to water service disruptions in urban economies

Water is a critical natural resource that sustains the productivity of many economic sectors, whether directly or indirectly. Climate change alongside rapid growth and development are a threat to water sustainability and regional productivity. In this paper, we develop an extension to the economic input-output model to assess the impact of water supply disruptions to regional economies. The model utilizes the inoperability variable, which measures the extent to which an infrastructure system or economic sector is unable to deliver its intended output. While the inoperability concept has been utilized in previous applications, this paper offers extensions that capture the time-varying nature of inoperability as the sectors recover from a disruptive event, such as drought. The model extension is capable of inserting inoperability adjustments within the drought timeline to capture time-varying likelihoods and severities, as well as the dependencies of various economic sectors on water. The model was applied to case studies of severe drought in two regions: (1) the state of Massachusetts (MA) and (2) the US National Capital Region (NCR). These regions were selected to contrast drought resilience between a mixed urban–rural region (MA) and a highly urban region (NCR). These regions also have comparable overall gross domestic products despite significant differences in the distribution and share of the economic sectors comprising each region. The results of the case studies indicate that in both regions, the utility and real estate sectors suffer the largest economic loss; nonetheless, results also identify region-specific sectors that incur significant losses. For the NCR, three sectors in the top 10 ranking of highest economic losses are government-related, whereas in the MA, four sectors in the top 10 are manufacturing sectors. Furthermore, the accommodation sector has also been included in the NCR case intuitively because of the high concentration of museums and famous landmarks. In contrast, the Wholesale Trade sector was among the sectors with the highest economic losses in the MA case study because of its large geographic size conducive for warehouses used as nodes for large-scale supply chain networks. Future modeling extensions could potentially include analysis of water demand and supply management strategies that can enhance regional resilience against droughts. Other regional case studies can also be pursued in future efforts to analyze various categories of drought severity beyond the case studies featured in this paper.

Housing Quality in a Rural and an Urban Settlement in South Africa.

During 2016 to 2018, a prospective household cohort study of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus community burden and transmission dynamics (the PHIRST study) was undertaken to examine the factors associated with influenza and other respiratory pathogen transmissions in South Africa. We collected information on housing conditions in the PHIRST study sites: Rural villages near Agincourt, Bushbuckridge Municipality, Mpumalanga Province, and urban Jouberton Township in North West Province. Survey data were collected from 159 and 167 study households in Agincourt and Jouberton, respectively. Multiple housing-related health hazards were identified in both sites, but particularly in Agincourt. In Agincourt, 75% (119/159) of households reported daily or weekly interruptions in water supply and 98% (154/159) stored drinking water in miscellaneous containers, compared to 1% (1/167) and 69% (115/167) of households in Jouberton. Fuels other than electricity (such as wood) were mainly used for cooking by 44% (70/159) and 7% (11/167) of Agincourt and Jouberton households, respectively; and 67% (106/159) of homes in Agincourt versus 47% (79/167) in Jouberton were located on unpaved roads, which is associated with the generation of dust and particulate matter. This study has highlighted housing conditions in Agincourt and Jouberton that are detrimental to health, and which may impact disease severity or transmission in South African communities.

Novel Use of Premixed Dialysate Bags during Water Supply Interruption in Acute Hospital Setting.

Patients on dialysis are exposed to large amounts of water during conventional intermittent hemodialysis; hence, there are strict regulations regarding the quality of water used to prepare dialysate. Occasionally, water systems fail due to natural disasters or structural supply issues, such as water-main breaks or unplanned changes in municipal or facility water quality. It is critical to regularly monitor and immediately recognize such a failure and take steps to avoid exposing the patients to contaminants. In addition to the recognition of the problem, the ability to pivot and continue to provide safe treatment to inpatients who are dependent on dialysis is essential, both from an ultrafiltration and a clearance standpoint. At our hospital, an unforeseen water disruption occurred and we were able to continue to provide KRT with premade, bagged dialysate to mitigate the effect on our patients on dialysis. This is a novel method using available machines and dialysate, which we normally stock for continuous KRT, for short dialysis sessions. The methodology is similar to that which has been widely used for short daily home hemodialysis with low dialysate flow rate. Because this situation occurred in the midst of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we had to be mindful of dialysate volumes and staffing time. Here, we present our investigation into the cause of the water-system failure and how we quickly implemented the alternative dialysis method. Short dialysis with low-flow dialysate will not deliver the same Kt/V per session as standard dialysis; however, this method was successfully implemented and tailored with adjustments for patients requiring higher clearance for specific indications, such as severe hyperkalemia.