Mitigation of naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water sources in rural areas in India: an overview

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brajesh K. Shrivastava

This paper provides updated status of fluoride affected rural habitations in all the States in India and explains the initiatives of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, in tackling fluoride affected habitations since year 2000. It also analyses the impact of these initiatives and identifies challenges in tackling excess fluoride in drinking water in India. The paper is intended primarily for policy formulators and programme managers working in drinking water sector to tackle fluoride and fluorosis problem in rural areas.

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 2798-2801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Verheyen ◽  
Monika Timmen-Wego ◽  
Rainer Laudien ◽  
Ibrahim Boussaad ◽  
Sibel Sen ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Diseases associated with viruses also found in environmental samples cause major health problems in developing countries. Little is known about the frequency and pattern of viral contamination of drinking water sources in these resource-poor settings. We established a method to analyze 10 liters of water from drinking water sources in a rural area of Benin for the presence of adenoviruses and rotaviruses. Overall, 541 samples from 287 drinking water sources were tested. A total of 12.9% of the sources were positive for adenoviruses and 2.1% of the sources were positive for rotaviruses at least once. Due to the temporary nature of viral contamination in drinking water sources, the probability of virus detection increased with the number of samples taken at one test site over time. No seasonal pattern for viral contaminations was found after samples obtained during the dry and wet seasons were compared. Overall, 3 of 15 surface water samples (20%) and 35 of 247 wells (14.2%) but also 2 of 25 pumps (8%) tested positive for adenoviruses or rotaviruses. The presence of latrines within a radius of 50 m in the vicinity of pumps or wells was identified as being a risk factor for virus detection. In summary, viral contamination was correlated with the presence of latrines in the vicinity of drinking water sources, indicating the importance of appropriate decision support systems in these socioeconomic prospering regions.


Author(s):  
Jing Yang ◽  
Tong-Sheng Chen ◽  
Qiang Sun ◽  
Bao-Yuan Huang ◽  
SI-Jing Ren

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Feldman ◽  
Jan-Willem Rosenboom ◽  
Mao Saray ◽  
Chea Samnang ◽  
Peng Navuth ◽  
...  

Most water supply programmes in Cambodia have focused on providing access to bacteriologically safe water, an approach which has led to an increasing reliance on ground water, especially in rural areas. However, there have been very few data collected on the chemical quality of the nation's drinking water sources, and few water supply programmes have the capacity to assess chemical quality. The study was designed to address this data gap by conducting a low-cost, rapid assessment of drinking water sources nationwide to determine whether there were any chemicals of concern in Cambodian water supply sources. Results of the assessment confirm that there are several parameters of health and aesthetic concern; dissolved arsenic is the most significant. Elevated arsenic levels (some exceeding 500 μg l-1) were detected in aquifers of moderate depth in several highly populated areas, confirming that further investigation of the occurrence of arsenic contamination in Cambodia is warranted. Other chemicals of health concern include nitrate, nitrite, fluoride and manganese. Additionally, many ground water sources are negatively impacted by parameters of aesthetic concern, such as iron, manganese, hardness and total dissolved solids. Elevated levels of these parameters have caused consumers to reject newly installed water supplies, often in favour of surface water sources that are bacteriologically unsafe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Maswati S. Simelane ◽  
Mduduzi Colani Shongwe ◽  
Kerry Vermaak ◽  
Eugene Zwane

Worldwide, millions of people still die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene, despite the fact that the United Nations recognized access to clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right nearly a decade ago. The objective of this study was to describe the determinants of access to improved drinking water sources in Eswatini in 2010 and 2014. Using the Eswatini Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (EMICSs), data for 4,819 households in 2010 and 4,843 in 2014 were analyzed. Bivariate and multivariate complementary log-log regression analyses were conducted to identify the determinants of households’ access to improved drinking water sources. The study found that households’ access to improved drinking water sources significantly improved from 73.1% in 2010 to 77.7% in 2014 (p<0.0001). In 2010, households whose heads were aged 35–54 and 55 years had lower odds of having access to improved drinking water sources than those with younger ones. In 2014, female-headed households had lower odds, while, in 2010, sex of the household head was not associated with access to improved drinking water sources. In both years, an increase in the number of household members was negatively associated with access to improved drinking water sources compared to those with fewer members. In both years, the odds of access to improved drinking water sources increased with an increase in the wealth index of the household, and households located in urban areas had higher odds of access to improved drinking water sources compared to those in rural settings. In both years, households from the Shiselweni and Lubombo regions had lower odds of access to improved drinking water sources. The government and its partners should continue to upscale efforts aimed at increasing access to improved drinking water, especially in rural areas, to reduce the disparity that exists between urban and rural households.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naeem Akram

Abstract. Access to clean and safe drinking water is a basic human right. Poor quality of drinking water is directly associated with various waterborne diseases. The present study has attempted to analyze the household preferences for drinking water sources and the adoption of water purifying methods at home in Pakistan by using the household data of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017–18. It has been found that people living in rural areas, headed by aged ones and having large family sizes are significantly less likely to use safe drinking water sources and households having media exposure, education, women empowerment in household purchases and belonging to the rich segment of society are more likely to use safe drinking water source. Similarly, households belonging to urban areas, having a higher level of awareness (through education and media), belonging to wealthy families, women enjoying a higher level of empowerment and using piped water are more likely to adopt water-purifying methods at home. However, households using water from tube wells, wells, and boreholes and having higher family sizes are less likely to adopt water purifying methods at home.


Author(s):  
Shane Htet Ko ◽  
Hiroshi Sakai

Abstract Myanmar is an agriculture-based country with 70% of the total population residing in rural areas. Around half of the total population in Myanmar has to consume water from unimproved sources. The prevalence of diarrhea due to contaminated drinking water is high even in urban areas. The urban community may expect the provision of municipal water supply in the near future if the current revolution in the country succeeds. However, the rural areas have lesser or no chance to get quality water because of a lot of other prioritized tasks. Household water treatment is encouraged to be implemented as one of the national water safety plans for rural water supply in Myanmar. This study explored the diarrhea prevention awareness of the rural community using a questionnaire survey. The microbial quality parameters of drinking water sources were also examined. Fecal coliform contamination was detected in all examined drinking water sources. A significant association was found between drinking untreated water and the occurrence of diarrhea. The percentage of people who applied the diarrhea preventive measures was low. Even if they knew how to prevent the disease, very few people applied the measures in reality. Therefore, measures to cause behavioral change should be initiated, together with awareness raising, to promote diarrhea prevention in the community.


Author(s):  
Srimanti Duttagupta ◽  
Soumendra N. Bhanja ◽  
Avishek Dutta ◽  
Soumyajit Sarkar ◽  
Madhumita Chakraborty ◽  
...  

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in immense loss of human life, but it also rampaged across the global economy and socio-cultural structure. Worldwide, countries imposed stringent mass quarantine and lockdowns to curb the transmission of the pathogen. While the efficacy of such lockdown is debatable, several reports suggest that the reduced human activities provided an inadvertent benefit by briefly improving air and water quality. India observed a 68-days long, nation-wide, stringent lockdown between 24 March and 31 May 2020. Here, we delineate the impact of the lockdown on groundwater and river sourced drinking water sustainability in the arsenic polluted Ganges river basin of India, which is regarded as one of the largest and most polluted river basins in the world. Using groundwater arsenic measurements from drinking water wells and water quality data from river monitoring stations, we have studied ~700 km stretches of the middle and lower reaches of the As (arsenic)-polluted parts of the river for pre-lockdown (January–March 2020), syn-lockdown (April–May), and post-lockdown periods (June–July). We provide the extent of As pollution-free groundwater vis-à-vis river water and examine alleviation from lockdown as an opportunity for sustainable drinking water sources. The overall decrease of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations and increase of pH suggests a general improvement in Ganges water quality during the lockdown in contrast to pre-and-post lockdown periods, potentially caused by reduced effluent. We also demonstrate that land use (agricultural/industrial) and land cover (urban-periurban/rural) in the vicinity of the river reaches seems to have a strong influence on river pollutants. The observations provide a cautious optimistic scenario for potentially developing sustainable drinking water sources in the arsenic-affected Ganges river basin in the future by using these observations as the basis of proper scientifically prudent, spatially adaptive strategies, and technological interventions.


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