Patterns of Water Quality in Rural Areas of Assyut Governorate, Egypt

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruud J. P. M. Platenburg ◽  
Magdi Zaki

In 1990-1991 an action-research programme in the field of rural water supply and sanitation was implemented with the objective “To assess to what extent childhood diarrhoea is reduced by the delivery of hardware facilities which improve water quality, water availability and excreta disposal, and also including an intensive educational package directed toward improving behaviours concerning water use and personal and domestic hygiene”. The intervention in Assyut Governorate comprising the construction of handpumps and latrines and a health education programme, was implemented during the second half of 1990. The data collection and data evaluation have been carried out during the period 1990-1991. Data were collected from the villages served with a complete intervention package as well as in control villages. This paper deals mainly with the water quality issues which were part of the research programme. A comparison is presented for the water quality from both traditional and new handpumps. This comparison is supported by data collection throughout the research period within certain intervals, and by data collected from other handpumps installed at earlier times in areas within Upper Egypt. Findings concerning the actual drinking water quality, and the quality control of intervention and monitoring procedures are also discussed. Major conclusions drawn from the results of the monitoring programme are:–The design, the drilling method and a proper development of handpump wells play an important role in the quality control of its water.–The bacteriological water quality improves only gradually after construction and eventually reaches acceptable levels. However, deep groundwater is thought to be of bacteriologically excellent quality. The most probable explanation for this gradual improvement is therefore the relatively long survival times of bacteria that entered the wells during construction.–Although it is not the intention of this paper to discuss the behavioural changes in the village communities during the research period, it was observed that, while water quality from handpumps is improving with time, the water quality from in-house zirs (storage reservoirs for drinking water) remained poor.

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Ai Yue ◽  
Yaojiang Shi ◽  
Renfu Luo ◽  
Linxiu Zhang ◽  
Natalie Johnson ◽  
...  

Purpose Although access to safe drinking water is one of the most important health-related infrastructure programs in the world, drinking water remains a large problem in China today, especially in rural areas. Despite increased government investment in water resource protection and management, there is still an absence of academic studies that are able to document what path the investment has taken and whether it has had any tangible impact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of drinking water investment on drinking water in China. Design/methodology/approach The authors make use of nationally representative data from 2005 and 2012 to measure the impact of drinking water investment among 2,028 rural households in 101 villages across five provinces. Both ordinary least squares regression and probit regression are used to analyze the correlates and the impact of drinking water investment. Findings The authors demonstrate that water quality was likely a significant problem in 2004 but that China’s investment into drinking water appears to have resulted in initial improvements during the study period. The authors show that the most significant change came about in terms of hardware: villages that received more drinking water investment now have more piped tap water and more access to water treatment infrastructure (disinfecting and filtering facilities). High rates of rural resident satisfaction with drinking water suggest the effects of drinking water investment are being felt at the village level. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study on drinking water investment over time in rural China using nationally representative data.


2014 ◽  
Vol 955-959 ◽  
pp. 3522-3528
Author(s):  
Jian Feng Zhang ◽  
Ya Xiong Deng ◽  
Zhan Qin Lei ◽  
Wei Xie

In the past two decade, the Chinese government has paid a huge effort to solve the problem of drinking water in remote rural. As an alterative success case, rainwater harvesting and utility has been the most efficient way to supplying fresh water in rural areas of the Loess Plateau, a typical water resources serious shortage area in China. Focused on improving the quality of the rural village cistern water, study about the characteristics of ion release from building materials during runoff process with five representative materials used for rainwater collection: concrete, red brick, grey tile, red tile and soil was conducted. The ion releasing process and following effect on cistern water quality index, such as hardness, pH, conductivity, has been analyzed. Results revealed that the most release strength of different materials was arriving at 30s following startup. Furthermore, the test of effects of rain acidity on ion release procession showed that the total ion release increased with storm water pH declining, however, the release strength was irrelevance with runoff’s pH. Based on research results, a detailed suggestion was provided to renovate intake construction of cistern for improving the drinking water quality in remote rural areas of Weibei Semi-arid District.


Author(s):  
D. Daniel ◽  
Arnt Diener ◽  
Jack van de Vossenberg ◽  
Madan Bhatta ◽  
Sara J. Marks

Accurate assessments of drinking water quality, household hygenic practices, and the mindset of the consumers are critical for developing effective water intervention strategies. This paper presents a microbial quality assessment of 512 samples from household water storage containers and 167 samples from points of collection (POC) in remote rural communities in the hilly area of western Nepal. We found that 81% of the stored drinking water samples (mean log10 of all samples = 1.16 colony-forming units (CFU)/100 mL, standard deviation (SD) = 0.84) and 68% of the POC samples (mean log10 of all samples = 0.57 CFU/100 mL, SD = 0.86) had detectable E. coli. The quality of stored water was significantly correlated with the quality at the POC, with the majority (63%) of paired samples showing a deterioration in quality post-collection. Locally applied household water treatment (HWT) methods did not effectively improve microbial water quality. Among all household sanitary inspection questions, only the presence of livestock near the water storage container was significantly correlated with its microbial contamination. Households’ perceptions of their drinking water quality were mostly influenced by the water’s visual appearance, and these perceptions in general motivated their use of HWT. Improving water quality within the distribution network and promoting safer water handling practices are proposed to reduce the health risk due to consumption of contaminated water in this setting.


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