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Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal

Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water is a global challenge, especially in rural areas. This research aimed to assess the effectiveness of a risk-based strategy to improve drinking water safety for five gravity-fed piped schemes in rural communities of the Mid-Western Region of Nepal. The...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tosi Robinson, Dorian, Schertenleib, Ariane, Kunwar, Bal Mukunda, Shrestha, Rubika, Bhatta, Madan, Marks, Sara J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121632/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30065180
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081616
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author Tosi Robinson, Dorian
Schertenleib, Ariane
Kunwar, Bal Mukunda
Shrestha, Rubika
Bhatta, Madan
Marks, Sara J.
author_facet Tosi Robinson, Dorian
Schertenleib, Ariane
Kunwar, Bal Mukunda
Shrestha, Rubika
Bhatta, Madan
Marks, Sara J.
author_sort Tosi Robinson, Dorian
collection PubMed
description Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water is a global challenge, especially in rural areas. This research aimed to assess the effectiveness of a risk-based strategy to improve drinking water safety for five gravity-fed piped schemes in rural communities of the Mid-Western Region of Nepal. The strategy was based on establishing community-led monitoring of the microbial water quality and the sanitary status of the schemes. The interventions examined included field-robust laboratories, centralized data management, targeted infrastructure improvements, household hygiene and filter promotion, and community training. The results indicate a statistically significant improvement in the microbial water quality eight months after intervention implementation, with the share of taps and household stored water containers meeting the international guidelines increasing from 7% to 50% and from 17% to 53%, respectively. At the study endline, all taps had a concentration of <10 CFU Escherichia coli/100 mL. These water quality improvements were driven by scheme-level chlorination, improved hygiene behavior, and the universal uptake of household water treatment. Sanitary inspection tools did not predict microbial water quality and, alone, are not sufficient for decision making. Implementation of this risk-based water safety strategy in remote rural communities can support efforts towards achieving universal water safety.
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spelling pubmed-61216322018-09-07 Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal Tosi Robinson, Dorian Schertenleib, Ariane Kunwar, Bal Mukunda Shrestha, Rubika Bhatta, Madan Marks, Sara J. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water is a global challenge, especially in rural areas. This research aimed to assess the effectiveness of a risk-based strategy to improve drinking water safety for five gravity-fed piped schemes in rural communities of the Mid-Western Region of Nepal. The strategy was based on establishing community-led monitoring of the microbial water quality and the sanitary status of the schemes. The interventions examined included field-robust laboratories, centralized data management, targeted infrastructure improvements, household hygiene and filter promotion, and community training. The results indicate a statistically significant improvement in the microbial water quality eight months after intervention implementation, with the share of taps and household stored water containers meeting the international guidelines increasing from 7% to 50% and from 17% to 53%, respectively. At the study endline, all taps had a concentration of <10 CFU Escherichia coli/100 mL. These water quality improvements were driven by scheme-level chlorination, improved hygiene behavior, and the universal uptake of household water treatment. Sanitary inspection tools did not predict microbial water quality and, alone, are not sufficient for decision making. Implementation of this risk-based water safety strategy in remote rural communities can support efforts towards achieving universal water safety. MDPI 2018-07-31 2018-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6121632/ /pubmed/30065180 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081616 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tosi Robinson, Dorian
Schertenleib, Ariane
Kunwar, Bal Mukunda
Shrestha, Rubika
Bhatta, Madan
Marks, Sara J.
Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal
title Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal
title_full Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal
title_fullStr Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal
title_short Assessing the Impact of a Risk-Based Intervention on Piped Water Quality in Rural Communities: The Case of Mid-Western Nepal
title_sort assessing the impact of a risk-based intervention on piped water quality in rural communities: the case of mid-western nepal
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121632/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30065180
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081616
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