Challenging Drinking Water Affordability and Wastewater Services in Urban Environments

Author(s):  
Joost Buurman ◽  
Stefanos Xenarios ◽  
Eduardo Araral ◽  
Corinne Ong

<p>The urbanization trend is an undeniable fact worldwide in large and small cities.  This trend demands the allocation of vast amount of water resources in cities for drinking and sanitation purposes to ensure a sustainable living.  The sufficient and good water quality as well as the provision of adequate wastewater services is a core element for the sustenance of urban centers independently of its scale.</p><p>Many of the water supply and wastewater authorities (WWS) are currently facing major challenges on the continuous and uninterrupted provision of services.  Rapid urbanization, aged infrastructure, water scarcity, poor water quality and network loses are some of the challenges to be currently met.</p><p>The response to many of the above issues demands the increase of operational and maintenance costs that have to be born mostly or entirely by the users. A big debate on the affordability of the urban dwellers to cover the water supply and waste expenditures is currently ongoing.</p><p>The current study will assess the affordability of water users in urban centers to cover the basic consumption and secure a minimum amount of water.  Also, the study will investigate water affordability indicators among different cities for the sustainable operation of the WWS in 21<sup>st</sup> century.</p><p>We will assess 5 different type of urban types to better capture the water affordability trends at large. Namely, the following types will be assessed a) New cities with rapid urbanization b) Old cities with existent aged network c) Water scarce cities with difficulty to access water sources d) Hazard prone cities with high vulnerability on water-risk problems e) Water sufficient cities, which however take measures on securitization of water resources. Examples from developing and developed countries will be drawn to examine the affordability issue in context specific and case-specific studies.</p>

Author(s):  

The article summarizes and analyzes experience in irrigation water charges fixation. Many countries of the world with developed irrigation systems face problems of lack or inadequacy of financial resources to maintain these systems in an efficient state. There is the necessity to find effective financial and organizational mechanisms to address these problems. The purpose of this article is to summarize and analyse the experience of setting fees for the supply of water for irrigation in various socio-economic conditions and to find out possibilities of improving systems of payment collection for the provision of irrigation services and in particular, for irrigation water supply. The analysis is based on a wide range of conditions specific for both developing and developed countries. In addition, the article attempts to assess the experience of using the amount of payment for irrigation water as an incentive for cost recovery to achieve financial sustainability and demand management for the efficient use of water resources. Quotas, water markets, subsidies, as well as information/educational problems have been considered as incentives of water resources demand management. We have considered special features of the tariffs formation in the Central Asia countries. The study has demonstrated that the two-stake tariff implementation will enable to compensate the irrigation services expenses at the level acceptable for water users in case of cultivation of crops generating an adequate income for the tariff’s financing.


2013 ◽  
Vol 807-809 ◽  
pp. 1087-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nida Chaimoon

Rainwater harvesting from roof is considered as valuable water resources. Material Flow Analysis (MFA) of water in Mahasarakham University (Khamriang Campus) shows that rainwater harvesting from roof can reduce water supply production by 7% and save more than 200,000 Bt/year for water treatment cost. The sensitivity analysis suggests that by 5% water supply conservation and 20% additional rainwater harvesting, MSU could have enough water resources. The rainwater is suitable to be substituted water for gardening due to the convenience to assemble an above ground storage tank or a pond to store harvested rainwater from roof. The current practice of rainwater is collected and discharged into drainage system and treated in wastewater treatment plant. Utilisation of rainwater harvested could reduce wastewater amount that must be treated by 9%. Rainwater harvesting and reuse should be promoted in campus in order to encourage sustainable living and water conservation policy.


Author(s):  
Karolina Yu. Popova ◽  
◽  
Oksana S. Prokhorenko ◽  
Tanyana Yu. Lashchinina ◽  
◽  
...  

The article notes that in recent years, water quality has deteriorated sharply. To reduce this process, the introduction of ecosystems in economic entities is required. However, these measures must be subsidized by the state, as the costs are too high. It is necessary to adopt an environmental policy that would contributed to the organization of control over the use of water resources.


Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1435
Author(s):  
Xinjian Guan ◽  
Pengkun Jiang ◽  
Yu Meng ◽  
Haidong Qin ◽  
Hong Lv

As an important water conservancy project, it is necessary to evaluate its water supply benefit. Based on the emergy analysis theory, a reservoir water supply benefits evaluation model (RWSBEM) was established. Firstly, the emergy transformity of natural and engineering water body was calculated. Secondly, the water resource values (WRV) of different water users (industrial, agricultural, domestic, ecological) were calculated. Finally, combined with the water supply situation of the reservoir, the various water supply benefits of the reservoir were calculated. Taking Hekoucun reservoir as an example, its ecological water supply benefit is the largest and agriculture is the smallest, followed by industry and life. The results showed that the trend of WRV was domestic > industry > ecology > agriculture, which reflected the contribution and utility of water resources in different industries. Under the condition of current water resources, the planned water supply benefits of the reservoir can be guaranteed in the wet and normal years, but in the dry years, the ecological benefit will be reduced. Therefore, the industry water-saving needs to be further strengthened, and the interannual regulation function of the reservoir should be applied more effectively to maximize the comprehensive benefits of reservoir water supply.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4254
Author(s):  
Yutong Tian ◽  
Chunhui Li ◽  
Yujun Yi ◽  
Xuan Wang ◽  
Anping Shu

With the development of industrial and agricultural production and the social economy, the demand for water resources has gradually increased. In this paper, based on the principles of system dynamics, a sustainable water resources utilization model with coupled water quality and quantity is established using STELLA software to assess the sustainable use of water resources. The model includes two modules: a water supply module and a water quality module. The water supply module includes four sub-systems: economy, population, water supply, and water demand. The water quality module consists of an environmental sub-system. The model is suitable for Tianjin, where water resources are scarce. Calibration is performed using data from 2013–2016, and verification is performed using data from 2017. The simulation results are good. In order to compare the sustainable use of water resources in different development scenarios in Tianjin for 2025, a sensitivity analysis is performed for each variable, and four decision variables are selected to establish four water resources use scenarios (Scenarios 1–4). The results show that, compared with scenario 1, water shortages in scenarios 2 and 3 are delayed. Scenario 4, with stable economic growth and environmental consideration, can effectively resolve the contradiction between water supply and demand in the future, and is more conducive to the improvement of water quality. Finally, based on the above research, measures to solve water resources problems are proposed, in order to provide a reference for the sustainable use of water resources and optimization of water resources allocation in Tianjin.


Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Rai ◽  
Priya Shyamsundar ◽  
Mani Nepal ◽  
Laxmi Bhatta

Watershed management is critical for the sustainable supply of clean water to urban centers, particularly in areas of developing countries where large-scale infrastructure projects are costly to implement. In this paper, we discuss the potential for financing improvements in watershed services in the foothills of the Himalayas through Payments for Ecosystem Services. Through the use of a choice experiment to disentangle household preferences, we show that downstream water users are interested in improvements in water quality through source water protection. Households in Dharan municipality are willing to finance watershed management to the extent of USD 118,000 per year. These payments can be used to incentivize upstream households to decrease domestic livestock grazing, change agricultural practices and reduce open defecation to improve the drinking water quality and quantity in downstream areas. The estimated cost of these activities is less than $50,000 per year. Through discussions with local stakeholders, we propose a tri-partite institutional structure to facilitate transactions between downstream and upstream communities and to improve watershed services.


Hydrology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winfred Kilonzo ◽  
Patrick Home ◽  
Joseph Sang ◽  
Beatrice Kakoi

Urbanization has caused limitations on water resources, while climate change has reduced amounts of surface water in some parts of the world. Kikuyu, a suburban area in Kiambu county, Kenya, is facing this challenge. The major challenge in the study is scarcity of potable water, resulting in inadequate water supply to Kikuyu residents. Currently, only 63.6% of the population is being supplied with water by Kikuyu Water Company, the company mandated to supply water to the area. Water demand was 2972 m3/day in 2015 and was projected to be 3834 m3/day by 2025. This has put pressure on the already exploited clean water resources, making it necessary to seek additional sources of domestic water. Storage capacity and water quality of surface water bodies, especially small reservoirs whose water can be used to ease the demand, need to be assessed for supplemental water supply. This study aimed at assessing the suitability of the abandoned quarry reservoir as a source of potable urban water by determining its storage capacity characteristics and water quality status. Volume characteristics were determined using bathymetry survey in January 2019. Water samples were collected in January and August 2019 and analyzed for chemical, physical, and bacteriological quality, as per the American Public Health Association (APHA) standard methods for water and wastewater. Parameters were evaluated based on World Health Organization (WHO) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) guidelines for drinking water, and rated based on the drinking water quality index (WQI). The reservoir’s maximum storage capacity was found to be 128,385 m3, the surface area was 17,699 m2, and the maximum depth was 15.11 m. Nineteen of the twenty-five investigated parameters were within the acceptable standards. However, the concentrations of manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), turbidity, total coliforms, and Escherichia coli (E. coli) were above the acceptable limits. Manganese and iron levels increased with depth. The overall WQI of the reservoir was 82.51 and 85.85 in January and August, respectively. Therefore, based on WQI rating, the water scored a good quality rating and could be used for domestic supply upon treatment. The original achievement of this study is establishment of the volume of the water in the quarry as an additional source of water to the nearby community, along with water quality status.


2018 ◽  
Vol 246 ◽  
pp. 01057
Author(s):  
Jiahui Sun ◽  
Xiaohui Lei ◽  
Ji Liang ◽  
Chao Wang ◽  
Liang Men

Along with social economy development, the total water consumption increased year by year. The conflicts between water supply and water consumption is growing. Water resources optimization dispatch, which is used to allocate water resources to meet the demand of water user on both time scale and spatial scale, plays an important role in water resources management. Aiming at improving the spatial allocation ability of traditional optimization algorithms, a uniform spatial allocation strategy is proposed accordingly. The proposed method is used to improve the performance of optimization algorithm to obtain solutions which can uniform the water supply in spatial scale. Simulation results show that the maximum ratio of water deficiency gained by the proposed method is smaller than that obtained by the original algorithm. The proposed method is effective to balance the demand of water users in spatial scale. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018).


Author(s):  
O.S Oladeji ◽  
R.A Olaoye ◽  
I.B Abioye

The city of Ilorin in Nigeria has experienced high population growth and rapid urbanization. Agba Dam is one of the major sources of potable water in Ilorin, and currently being threatened by anthropogenic induced encroachment activities, with potential for significant derogatory effects on its quality. Therefore, this paper assesses the qualitative impact of encroachment on the water resources regime of Agba Dam, Ilorin, Nigeria. Field survey was carried out to scope proximal anthropogenic activities and to delineate historical as well as current extent of the encroachment area of the dam. Representative water samples were collected from locations within the dam catchment, and subsequently analyzed for alkalinity, dissolved carbondioxide, chloride, total iron, copper, sulphate, colour, calcium, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. In addition, historical physical and chemical data of water samples obtained from the dam were also acquired, and analyzed to determine temporal variation in the quality. The results show a reduction of 0.89 km2 or 63% in the historical buffer boundary of the dam. The values of the measured physico-chemical parameters were generally similar to that obtained for the historical values and therefore suggest limited impact of the anthropogenic activities on the water quality. However, slight increases were observed in the measured concentrations of the alkalinity, dissolved carbondioxide, chloride, iron, copper and sulphate, and this indicates possibilities of water quality alteration, with potential consequences for ecosystem and aquatic life if the trend is unabated.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-353 ◽  

Groundwater plays an important role for urban and agricultural water supply in northern part of Peloponnesus. Despite increasing environmental awareness in this area, groundwater is a resource that is being stressed. Groundwater provides about 80% the total quantity of water supply. Distribution of water resources is nonhomogeneous in this region. In general the eastern part is semiarid, whereas the western part is supplied with abundant water. Surface water potential in North Peloponnesus estimated to be 0.9- 1.2x109 m3 y-1. Overexploitation of groundwater and the extensive agriculture has created environmental problems in some aquifers (sea water intrusion, nitrate pollution). Seawater intrusion occurs in some coastal aquifers, where negative water balance has been established. High percentage of the examined samples exceeded the maximum admissible nitrate concentration of 50 mg l-1, set by EU for drinking water. Groundwater in urban areas has been contaminated to varying degrees. The water quality is classified into Ca-HCO3 type (fresh water) and Na-HCO3 or Na-Cl type (brackish waters) in the coastal part, due to seawater intrusion. Some recommendations are made in order to safeguard high water quality and to develop new ways of providing water source in the study area. Moreover, an integrated and comprehensive management scheme should be applied, aiming at sustainability of water resources and based on surface water and groundwater exploitation, simultaneously.


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