scholarly journals Returning knowledge to the community: an innovative approach to sharing knowledge about drinking water practices in a peri-urban community

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Furlong ◽  
J. Tippett

During previous research into drinking water quality in Peru, it was found that water was becoming contaminated in households, and there was a lack of understanding surrounding this contamination. It was felt that returning these findings to the community could build capacity, enabling people to make more informed choices about drinking water practices. Several participatory methods were explored. Ketso®, a hands-on kit for engagement, was thought to provide the most appropriate approach, and was used to deliver several workshops in the community. Thirty-five participants explored their understanding of drinking water and factors that caused contamination. The method allowed them to explore these factors in depth and to develop several practical and simple solutions. One solution capitalized on a novel finding; participants associated the taste of chlorine with clean water, but were unaware that household bleach could be used as a cost-effective water treatment. Feedback was excellent, with Ketso seen as giving participants space to better understand and question their practices, whilst building capacity for change. This co-production of knowledge also allowed the researcher to gain a better understanding of local knowledge and perceptions. Such innovative knowledge exchange has important implications for future implementation of new water technologies and engineering projects.

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Cromphout ◽  
W. Rougge

In Harelbeke a Water Treatment Plant with a capacity of 15,000 m3/day, using Schelde river water has been in operation since April 1995. The treatment process comprises nitrification, dephosphatation by direct filtration, storage into a reservoir, direct filtration, granular activated carbon filtration and disinfection. The design of the three-layer direct filters was based on pilot experiments. The performance of the plant during the five years of operation is discussed. It was found that the removal of atrazin by activated carbon depends on the water temperature.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 899
Author(s):  
Djordje Mitrovic ◽  
Miguel Crespo Chacón ◽  
Aida Mérida García ◽  
Jorge García Morillo ◽  
Juan Antonio Rodríguez Diaz ◽  
...  

Studies have shown micro-hydropower (MHP) opportunities for energy recovery and CO2 reductions in the water sector. This paper conducts a large-scale assessment of this potential using a dataset amassed across six EU countries (Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Spain, and Portugal) for the drinking water, irrigation, and wastewater sectors. Extrapolating the collected data, the total annual MHP potential was estimated between 482.3 and 821.6 GWh, depending on the assumptions, divided among Ireland (15.5–32.2 GWh), Scotland (17.8–139.7 GWh), Northern Ireland (5.9–8.2 GWh), Wales (10.2–8.1 GWh), Spain (375.3–539.9 GWh), and Portugal (57.6–93.5 GWh) and distributed across the drinking water (43–67%), irrigation (51–30%), and wastewater (6–3%) sectors. The findings demonstrated reductions in energy consumption in water networks between 1.7 and 13.0%. Forty-five percent of the energy estimated from the analysed sites was associated with just 3% of their number, having a power output capacity >15 kW. This demonstrated that a significant proportion of energy could be exploited at a small number of sites, with a valuable contribution to net energy efficiency gains and CO2 emission reductions. This also demonstrates cost-effective, value-added, multi-country benefits to policy makers, establishing the case to incentivise MHP in water networks to help achieve the desired CO2 emissions reductions targets.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Dominique J. Monlezun ◽  
Christopher Carr ◽  
Tianhua Niu ◽  
Francesco Nordio ◽  
Nicole DeValle ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: We sought to produce the first meta-analysis (of medical trainee competency improvement in nutrition counseling) informing the first cohort study of patient diet improvement through medical trainees and providers counseling patients on nutrition. Design: (Part A) A systematic review and meta-analysis informing (Part B) the intervention analyzed in the world’s largest prospective multi-center cohort study on hands-on cooking and nutrition education for medical trainees, providers, and patients. Settings: (A) Medical educational institutions. (B) Teaching kitchens. Participants: (A) Medical trainees. (B) Trainees, providers, and patients. Results: (A) Of the 212 citations identified (N=1,698 trainees), 11 studies met inclusion criteria. The overall effect size was 9.80 (95%CI 7.15-12.456.87-13.85; p<0.001), comparable to the machine learning (ML)-augmented results. The number needed to treat for the top performing high quality study was 12. (B) The hands-on cooking and nutrition education curriculum from the top performing study was applied for medical trainees and providers who subsequently taught patients in the same curriculum (N=5,847). The intervention compared to standard medical care and education alone significantly increased the odds of superior diets (high/medium versus low Mediterranean diet adherence) for residents/fellows most (OR 10.79, 95%CI 4.94-23.58; p<0.001) followed by students (OR 9.62, 95%CI 5.92-15.63; p<0.001), providers (OR 5.19, 95%CI 3.23-8.32, p<0.001), and patients (OR 2.48, 95%CI 1.38-4.45; p=0.002), results consistent with those from ML. Conclusions: This study suggests that medical trainees and providers can improve patients’ diets with nutrition counseling in a manner that is clinically and cost effective and may simultaneously advance societal equity.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
Arshad Ali ◽  
Hashim Nissar Hasim ◽  
Ashfaq Ahmad ◽  
Intikhab Ahmad Qureashi

Pakistan is subjected to rapid water shortage due to different social and environmental problems. Moreover, the drinking water is being contaminated at an alarming rate that is mostly due to the discharge of untreated domestic and industrial effluent and agricultural run-off. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the water quality problems of the subject area and to determine a cost effective treatment technique. The main objective was to determine the removal efficiency of microbial contamination using flocculant settling. The main pollutants identified by conducting water quality tests are arsenic, fluoride, nitrates and microbial contamination. The maximum concentration of arsenic, fluoride, nitrates and microbial contamination were observed as 12ppb, 2.2mg/L, 26mg/L and 84 colonies/100mL, respectively. During discrete settling tests performed in a 12cft column, it was noticed that the removal of microbial contamination corresponding to a detention time of 225min is 26.7% only. While working on different coagulants, it was observed that the optimum alum, lime and magnesium dosage for the removal of microbial contamination is 31.5mg/L, 10.5mg/L and 27mg/L respectively. The final results of the study suggest that the use of lime as a coagulant to improve the quality of water in terms of microbial contamination is an effective and reliable technique, both in terms of its treatability performance and cost-effectiveness, which was noticed to be 77.7%.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hn.v8i0.4909Hydro Nepal: Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Issue No. 8, 2011 JanuaryPage: 34-37Uploaded date: 17 June, 2011


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Abdulhadi ◽  
Pei Tze Kueh ◽  
Aiman Zamanuri ◽  
Wai Cheong Thang ◽  
Hon Voon Chin ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 61-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Cutter ◽  
Ben Haley ◽  
Jim Williams ◽  
C.K. Woo

Author(s):  
Nguyet Thi-Minh Dao ◽  
The-Anh Nguyen ◽  
Viet-Anh Nguyen ◽  
Mitsuharu Terashima ◽  
Hidenari Yasui

The occurrence of pesticides even at low concentrations in drinking water sources might induce potential risks to public health. This study aimed to investigate the removal mechanisms of eight pesticides by the nitrifying expanded-bed filter using biological activated carbon media at the pretreatment of a drinking water plant. The field analysis demonstrated that four pesticides Flutolanil, Buprofezin, Chlorpyrifos, and Fenobucard, were removed at 82%, 55%, 54%, and 52% respectively, while others were not significantly removed. Under controlled laboratory conditions with continuous and batch experiments, the adsorption onto the biological activated carbon media was demonstrated to be the main removal pathway of the pesticides. The contribution of microorganisms to the pesticide removals was rather limited. The pesticide removals observed in the field reactor was speculated to be the adsorption on the suspended solids presented in the influent water. The obtained results highlighted the need to apply a more efficient and cost-effective technology to remove the pesticide in the drinking water treatment process. Keywords: biological activated carbon; drinking water treatment; nitrifying expanded-bed filter; pesticide removal.


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