Quality Of Water Supply Research Articles

Controlling water supply quality: case study of Souk Ahras City in Algeria

Controlling water supply quality: case study of Souk Ahras City in Algeria

Tendencies towards bottled drinking water consumption: Challenges ahead of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste management.

Background: The main objective of this study was to investigate the logics behind tendencies towards bottled drinking water usage in spite of availability of treated tap water. The amount of waste bottle is also estimated in Iran and managing principles for resolving the issue presented. Methods: A questionnaire was used to survey the logics behind tendencies toward bottled drinking water consumption among 120 participants. In order to estimate the quantities of the PET wastes produced in the country, data about bottled water production rate as well as volume of the imported and exported drinking bottled water were collected from 1962 to 2015 and applied in the calculations. Results: Findings suggested that about 0.026 to 3.86 billion liters (about 1.04 billion literson average) of bottled water was consumed annually between 2000 and 2015. Furthermore, bottled water consumption increased from 0.41 to 48.9 L/capita-year within the same time period. In the meantime, the plastic bottle waste generation rate rose from 12.84 to 1519.38 g/capita-year. There is no efficient and suitable system for managing and recycling waste bottles in the country. The perceived unreliability of tap water quality was the main reason of bottled water consumption among 74% of the respondents. Conclusion: To reduce bottled water consumption and the associated harmful environmental and health consequences, measures such as informing people, validating public water supply quality, preventive rules enactment, and establishing extended producer responsibility (EPR) are highly recommended.

Regional Algae Bloom: Natural Disaster Causes Economic Setback in Private Fishing Charter in Southwest Florida

In recent years, water eutrophication has become an environmental problem of general concern. In some drinking water sources, the proliferation of algae has a great impact on the operation of water plants and the quality of drinking water. At present, many scholars at home and abroad are studying the methods of algae monitoring and algae removal, and seek ways to solve the algae pollution, so as to improve the water quality of urban water supply and ensure the safety of water use for residents. In GB5749-2006, the national Ministry of health and the Standardization Administration stipulated that the index value of total microcystins was 0. Oolmg / L. Although this is an unconventional index, it reflects that the eutrophication of fresh water resources and the micro pollution of drinking water sources have become a global problem of great concern. Water eutrophication not only affects the basic life of human beings, but also has caused serious economic impact. Algal outbreaks and fish deaths caused by eutrophication in water bodies often result in economic losses to tourism, recreation, catch fisheries and aquaculture.

Application of in-situ restoration combination technique for eutrophic water in Bailuwan Ecological Wetland Park

Bailuwan Ecological Wetland Park with an area of 200 hm2, has been the first “National Urban Wetland Park” in Chengdu which is divided into A and B two zones. In zone A, as a window and image representative of the city, 50% recharge water in Daxuanhu Lake comes from Xiaoxuanhu Lake. The water eutrophication was serious with water blooms appeared in Xiaoxuanhu Lake in 2017. In order to repair the eutrophic water body, in-situ ecological restoration combination technology was applied. Thirteen kinds of plants, including submerged water, emergent water and floating leaf together with man-made wetland, submerged macrophyte, ecological floating bed and floating leaf plant were selected to construct as restoration system for Xiaoxuanhu Lake. The results showed that Xiaoxuanhu Lake water quality had improved significantly after restoration. The main physical and chemical indexes were up to the standard of III class of surface water from inferior V in one year’s operation. The annual average concentration of CODMn, TP, TN and NH3-N compared with influent decreased 10.4%, 67.7%, 25.1% and 25.6% respectively. The high quality water supply for Daxuanhu Lake was guaranteed in this way. The technique can be used in situ restoration of eutrophic water body in the ecological wetland park and ecological restoration of eutrophic water body in urban rivers and lakes.

Risk Assessment of Water Treatment Plants Using Fuzzy Fault Tree Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation

Urban water supply, transmission, and distribution systems are considered as the basic infrastructures of each community. Deficiency of water resources in system leads to lack of some subscribers’ access to safe water at any time. The water treatment units have a high potential for massive crisis and importance of sustainable performance in water treatment plants, due to their special role in high quantity and quality water supply even in critical situations, requires a comprehensive approach in assessing and increasing the reliability. A comprehensive approach in assessing the performance of water treatment plants and reducing their vulnerability can lead to cost reduction of inappropriate performance in critical situations and also a focus on the most important vulnerable parts of water treatment plants to decrease their vulnerability, as well as cost-effective budgeting in recovery programs. In this research, due to the uncertainties in the input information, two methods of fuzzy fault tree analysis (FFTA) and fault tree analysis (FTA) based on Monte Carlo simulation were evaluated in Jalaliyeh water treatment plant in Tehran, and results of both approaches were compared in terms of uncertainty analysis. The results indicate the low to moderate failure risk in the treatment plant in both approaches and a small difference between results in both cases. Failure probability of top event for FFTA and Monte Carlo-based FTA methods is 0.194 and 0.27, respectively. In the basic event rating, it was found that threats such as inappropriate reservoir design, power equipment failure, transfer pipe failure, and inappropriate maintenance of the pumps play the major role in treatment plant failure.

Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply.

Seawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant installed in Kampung Pantai Senok, Kelantan, as this plant was the first installed in Malaysia. The software SimaPro 8.5 together with the ReCiPe 2016 database were used as tools to evaluate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SWRO plant. The results showed that the impact of global warming (3.90 kg CO2 eq/year) was the highest, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.62 kg 1,4-DCB/year) and fossil resource scarcity (1.29 kg oil eq/year). The impact of global warming was caused by the natural gas used to generate the electricity, mainly during the RO process. Reducing the environmental impact can be effectively achieved by decreasing the electricity usage for the seawater desalination process. As a suggestion, electricity generation can be overcome by using a high-flux membrane with other suitable renewable energy for the plant such as solar and wind energy.

Features of integrated water resources management of the charvak reservoir

For the assessment of water resources for sustainable development of the country and its regions need to have comprehensive and current data on the supply of quality water, the conditions of the formation of the hydrological regime of water bodies and their environmental condition, as well as a possible change in its inventory under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors.

Адаптація міжнародних підходів до формування системи статистичних показників аналізу використання водних ресурсів на рівні міста

The article aims at substantiating the theoretical and methodological foundations for creating a unified statistical indicators system and statistical analysis of the water resources management at the city level. The advantages of using standardized indicators in the field of sanitation and water supply at the city level are identified and characterized in accordance with ISO 37120: 2014 «Sustainable cities and communities – indicators of urban services and quality of life». Both the main and auxiliary indicators of urban services and quality of life on «Water and sanitary conditions» and «Sewage» topics are systematized as for their formulas, application features and data sources. It is established that, according to the Water Risk Filter, Ukraine can be divided into four regions depending on the water risk, namely, low, moderately medium, medium, and high water risk levels. Based on these data, such cities from the Global Register of Cities developed by the World Council on City Data (WCCD) were selected: Amsterdam (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Guadalajara (Mexico). Their indicators in the field of sanitation and water supply were analyzed. It is established that these cities are characterized by a high level of water supply and sewerage services, as well as a fairly high level of the access to high-quality sanitary and hygienic conditions. The situation with quality indicators of water management is worse. For example, advanced waste treatment is only carried out in Dubai. In Guadalajara, 21% of urban wastewater is not treated at all. It is established that in general, Dubai is the leader in the quality of water supply and sanitation services, while Guadalajara is the outsider city, showing the lowest quality levels of most of the studied indicators. The national system of indicators is suggested to be expanded by including such an indicator as «Average annual duration of water supply outages per 1 household»

Application of geographical information system to geoelectrical data for evaluation of the vulnerability of aquifers in parts of Bauchi, Northeastern Nigeria

The poor quality and inconsistent nature of most surface water supply in arid and semi-arid regions of the world has increased the reliance on groundwater resources. However, the susceptibility of groundwater to anthropogenic pollution in most cities and rural communities in Nigeria has become a major source of concern. In this study, the protective capacity of the aquifers in parts of the Bauchi State, Northeastern, Nigeria, from surface contamination was investigated in light of the geoelectrical characteristics of the overburden materials for sustainable management of the resources. This study applied a geographical information system (GIS) technique to secondary geoelectrical parameters (Dar-Zarrouk) derived from 94 vertical electrical soundings (VES) to delineate aquifer vulnerability zones. Five different thematic maps (topsoil longitudinal unit conductance, total overburden longitudinal unit conductance, total transverse unit resistance, coefficient of anisotropy, and total overburden isopach) were developed. Suitable weights were assigned to the thematic maps based on their relative influence on the protection of groundwater systems in the area. Subsequently, the ranks of the subclasses of the themes were reclassified based on their respective suitability before the thematic maps were integrated using ArcGIS 10.3 software to generate the overall aquifer protective capacity map of the study area. To validate the map, water samples were collected from 40 wells and trace elements (e.g., Ni, Cu, Sb, Cr, and As) were analyzed. The study area was categorized into three aquifer vulnerability zones: moderate (32.4%), weak/fair (54.5%), and low/poor (13.1%). Moderate zones with limited portions of fair/weak zones were the predominant zones within the basement setting. This reflects the occurrence of clayey saprolitic units within the basement terrain ( 15,000 Ωm2). Over 60% of the basement settings are characterized by moderate aquifer protective capacity. On the other hand, the sedimentary zones due to weak and poor protective capacity zones are more vulnerable to pollution. The trace elemental analysis shows the predominance of As, Cu, and Sb in the sedimentary zones as compared to the basement setting which corroborates the aquifer protective capacity map produced.

Urban Water Supply Management and Water Supply Safety Countermeasures

With the development of social economy, the scale of towns is expanding, the quality of life is improved, and the water supply safety is more and more concerned. Urban water supply as the key component of urban infrastructure construction, in order to ensure the safety of water quality, to avoid different nature of water quality pollution, to different management objects and system analysis, understand the factors affecting water quality, using scientific management methods, construction of perfect urban water supply security and quality assurance management system. And establish a certain period, regularly control urban water supply pipes and auxiliary facilities, find and control and deal with problems in time. The transformation of urban pipe network should promote and apply new pipe materials, which can avoid the secondary pollution of pipe materials. To sum up, the current water supply system management and urban water supply system is serious, backward management technology and supervision technology, aging water supply pipe network and insufficient capital investment all affect the management of water supply system and water supply safety, relevant departments should pay attention to and control, and do a good job in problem solving and control

Water and Sanitation for Population Health and Wellbeing: The Nepalese Initiatives

A person's wellbeing is highly dependent on both the quality and the availability of water, and efficient management of this precious resource. Both biological disease agents and chemical pollutants are compromising drinking-water quality. Contaminated water causes a range of often life-threatening diseases. Of the waterborne diseases affecting a person's health, mostly children, the deadliest are diarrhoeal infections. To manage the supply of quality water with the required quantity, it needs proper policy and programme in place to ensure improved and total sanitation for public wellbeing. Though the implementation strategies are constrained by resource scarcity, poor designing, environmental catastrophes, Nepal has done ample policy and planning efforts in the water and sanitation sector.

Effects of changing supply water quality on drinking water distribution networks: Changes in NOM optical properties, disinfection byproduct formation, and Mn deposition and release

Field studies were conducted in a Croatian city supplied by two distinct groundwater sources (referred to as A and B) to investigate both the effects of changing water source on the water quality in the drinking water supply system, as well as to further understand discoloration events that occurred in city locations that switched water from source A to B. The water treatment processes at site A were found to alter organic matter (OM) characteristics, removing humic substances while enhancing protein-derived (tryptophan) content. Although the humic-like component predominated in raw waters, microbially/protein-derived components were found to increase throughout the distribution networks of both systems. Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) such as total trihalomethane (TTHM) and total haloacetic acid (THAA) were prevalent in water distribution system (WDS)-A, which correlated with elevated OM content as well as re-chlorination with hypochlorite (NaOCl). Our field study revealed that THMs were more readily formed than HAAs during ClO2 treatment. Unsurprisingly, chlorite concentrations were generally higher than chlorate concentrations during ClO2 treatment, whereas (secondary) NaOCl disinfection contributed to higher chlorate production. Principal component analysis indicated that variable pH values and humic-like OM could affect Mn, As and Al concentrations at the consumer's tap. Our results suggested that although Mn concentrations complied with regulations at WDS-B and were below 50 μg/L after disinfection, Mn was oxidized and formed particulate Mn oxides capable of causing discoloration events depending on prevailing network physico-chemical and hydraulic conditions. Aluminium also appears to be released during hydraulic disturbances from extensive deposits within the network. Thermodynamic calculations showed that Mn-oxidation was strongly dependent upon the ORP, and to lesser extent the pH value. Collectively, our results confirm that ensuring the provision of safe drinking waters to consumers requires an understanding of water quality across entire distribution networks in addition to any routine post-treatment monitoring.

Desalination and hydrodiplomacy: Refreshening transboundary water negotiations or adding salt to the wounds?

Much of the literature on the political ramifications of desalination has emphasized its potential to mitigate transboundary water conflicts by increasing the quantity of available water (thereby alleviating scarcity), and also by reducing variability and uncertainty regarding the timing, location, and quality of water supplies. Of less focus has been the potential for the introduction of desalination to affect efforts at hydrodiplomacy, by, for instance, shifting international negotiating positions, strategies and outcomes. Desalination allows for countries to be more flexible in their negotiating positions, however, it also changes the set of alternatives to negotiations and can reduce incentives for cooperation. Moreover, while desalination has much potential to reduce interstate conflict over shared water resources, it can also introduce new disputes, for instance, by generating demand for previously unusable waters. This article provides an overview of the potential and actual impacts of desalination on international hydrodiplomacy, and provides case studies of how desalination can introduce new issues of concern over previously uncontentious waters.

Leveraging ebola viral disease emergency preparedness for infection prevention and control in health care facilities

Background: In August 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo notified an ebola viral heamorhagice (EVD) outbreak. In response, Uganda strengthened emergency preparedness efforts in preparation for any spillover of the outbreak, particularly in the Albertine, South Western region, Rwenzori and West Nile. In particular, infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions were strengthened in addition to other key interventions. We evaluated the response towards IPC during the EVD preparedness. Methods and materials: We conducted a desk review of the meeting proceedings for the EVD preparedness and response efforts by the National Task Force. We specifically looked at the efforts that were put in place concerning IPC. Results: At the beginning of the outbreak there was lack of sanitation facilities in places like the screening points, including lack of reliable and quality water supply. Waste segregation was not appropriate and there were no hand washing facilities at in most health facilities as well as lack of IPC guidelines. In response, the following interventions were put in place; (i) Mentoring of health workers on chlorine preparation and hand hygiene. (ii) Assessment of IPC in health facilities were carried out in order to guide the action plan. These assessments were regularly conducted depending on the situation and these included, both internal and external evaluation of the progress. The IPC assessments also included evaluation for hand washing on the different units of the health facilities. (iii) There are also CMEs on IPC including waste management and including distribution of information education materials. (iv) IPC committees in health facilities and at the district were constituted or revived. Gate keepers were utilized to foster hand washing by having the hand washing facilities at the gates, to ensure that every one coming in the facility washes their hands. Conclusion: Emergence preparedness strengthened the IPC in the affected health facilities, particularly the promotion of hand washing facilities and promoted the use of alcohol hand rub. This could potentially improve hand hygiene in health care facilities-including community members. Capacity built should be maintained for overall healthcare safety.

The Relationship between Quality Water Supply and Ghanaians Health Improvement: The Role of Governance Effectiveness

The Relationship between Quality Water Supply and Ghanaians Health Improvement: The Role of Governance Effectiveness

Assessment of the Effluents of Basra City Main Water Treatment Plants for Drinking and Irrigation Purposes

A severe water scarcity challenge is facing Iraq, which is predominantly due to the absence of water management policies, negatively impacting the water quantity and quality provision from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Moreover, these practices have led to the intrusion of the Arabian Gulf salinity wedge into the Shatt Al-Arab River (SAR), which is the main water source for most water treatment plants (WTPs) in Basra city. In addition, the inadequate management and operation for most WTPs is another reason for the deterioration of water quality provided to Basra province. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of the main WTP within Basra province and to subsequently make recommendations for decision-makers to come up with new management strategies and policies. The effluents from eight WTPs were selected to study the quality of water supply for Basra city during the period between January 2018 and December 2018. The results showed that all WTPs were inadequate to treat raw water for drinking or irrigation purposes mainly due to the very bad raw water quality provided by the SAR as well as the lack of maintenance for such plants, resulting in very low removal efficiencies for various water contaminants.

Transitional Flow Analysis at Prototype Gated Spillways in South Florida

AbstractWater control operations in South Florida often involve the estimation of transition flow at low-head gated spillways for flood control, water supply, and water quality compliance purposes....

Environmental tracers to evaluate groundwater residence times and water quality risk in shallow unconfined aquifers in sub Saharan Africa

In sub-Saharan Africa, shallow aquifer systems are relied on as the main safe and secure water resource available to rural communities. Information on the sustainability and vulnerability of groundwater abstraction is becoming increasingly important as groundwater development increases. As part of the UpGro Consortium Project- Hidden Crisis, 150 hand pumped boreholes (HPBs), ranging between 15 and 101 m depth were investigated to examine the resilience of aquifer systems in the Ethiopian Highlands, and the crystalline basement rocks of Uganda and Malawi. Environmental tracers (chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), SF6, chloride and the stable isotopes of water), water quality indicators (nitrate and E. coli), and groundwater-level time series data were used to estimate groundwater residence time and recharge at a regional scale (100–10,000 km2) and investigate the risks to water quality and water supply over different timeframes, and geological and climatic environments. Average estimated recharge rates using three different techniques (CFCs, chloride mass balance, water table fluctuation method) were between 30 and 330, 27–110 and 30–170 mm y−1, for sites in Ethiopia, Uganda and Malawi, respectively. These estimates of recharge suggests abstraction from dispersed low-yielding HPBs is sustainable. Comparison of stable isotopes in rainfall and groundwater indicates that there is little evaporation prior to recharge, and recharge events are biased to months with greater rainfall and more intense rainfall events There was a weak correlation between nitrate and CFCs within all three countries, and no correlation between E. coli and CFCs within Ethiopia or Malawi. The presence of E. coli at a large proportion of the sites (Ethiopia = 38%, Uganda = 65% and Malawi = 47%) suggests rapid transit of contaminated surface water into the borehole and its presence in groundwater that has CFC-12 concentrations less than 75 pg kg−1 indicates mixing of very young water with water >40 years old. The rapid transit pathways are most likely associated with damaged HPB headworks and poor construction. In several monitored HPBs, daily drawdown due to pumping, drew the groundwater levels close to the base of the HPB, indicating that these HPBs were located in parts of the aquifer with low permeability, or were poorly designed, offering limited capacity for increased demand. Improved HPB siting and construction, coupled with groundwater level monitoring are required to capitalise on the more resilient groundwater within the shallow aquifers and safeguard adequate and good quality water supply for rural communities.

Plant-level characteristics could aid in the assessment of water-related threats to the electric power sector

Water is a necessary resource for thermoelectric power generation. Extreme conditions (e.g., droughts and floods) threaten both the quantity and quality of power plant water supply as well as disrupt wastewater discharges back to the environment. Changing climate conditions and water use regimes have prompted numerous assessments exploring the growing threat water poses to the electric power industry. However, lacking from public sources are plant-level data potentially important to such assessments. To better understand this data gap, a semi-structured interview approach was employed with a subset of (coal-fired) power plant owners and operators to characterize the modes by which extreme conditions impact their plant’s operations and the measures they have implemented to mitigate water related threats. Interviews engaged 69 power plants, characterized by a range of capacities, cooling types, and water sources. Twenty-five unique modes of impact were identified across the 69 plants, with 96% of plants reported taking some deliberate action to mitigate water-related threats; thirty-four different adaptive measures were recorded. Results here are intended to raise awareness for this potentially important data gap, which could influence the accuracy of projections concerning individual power plant operations under extreme climate conditions supporting grid reliability and long-term system planning exercises.

Horizontal flow reactor optimization for biogas recovery during high solid organics fermentation: Rheological characteristic analyses

Continuous improvements in human living standards, water supply quality, and poor solid waste collection systems in China has led to increased production of municipal sewage sludge and organic solid waste (MOSW), which incurs a potential risk for human health and the environment. Solid anaerobic fermentation, which has exhibited advantageous energy recovery and biosolid stabilization, has been considered for urban organic solid waste treatment. The primary objective of this study was to optimize horizontal flow reactor operations for the efficient fermentation of high solid organics and subsequent biogas production via rheological characteristic analyses. The effects of operational parameters, such as paddle type, paddle diameter, pitch diameter ratio, stirring efficiency, torque, and power consumption, on the reactor performance were simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The solid content greatly influenced the rheological characteristics of the MOSW; increasing the solid content (5 %–30 %) of the MOSW led to a significant decline in the rheological index (0.532 to 0.224). The optimized parameters simulated by CFD included a screw-type stirring paddle with a pitch of 0.6 D, pitch of the screw with the value of 0.75 D, stirring shaft (set vertically and eccentrically downward) with the value of 0.15 D, and stirring speed less than 10 rpm. Moreover, the higher the consistency coefficient, the lower the rheological index and required power consumption. The reactor energy consumption analysis indicated that the average energy consumption can reach 48.20 kJ/m3 with an efficient operation.