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.
Applying Numerical Models and Optimized Sensor Networks for Drinking Water Quality Control