Cargando…
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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
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 |
_version_ | 1783352513751154688 |
---|---|
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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6121632 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT tosirobinsondorian assessingtheimpactofariskbasedinterventiononpipedwaterqualityinruralcommunitiesthecaseofmidwesternnepal AT schertenleibariane assessingtheimpactofariskbasedinterventiononpipedwaterqualityinruralcommunitiesthecaseofmidwesternnepal AT kunwarbalmukunda assessingtheimpactofariskbasedinterventiononpipedwaterqualityinruralcommunitiesthecaseofmidwesternnepal AT shrestharubika assessingtheimpactofariskbasedinterventiononpipedwaterqualityinruralcommunitiesthecaseofmidwesternnepal AT bhattamadan assessingtheimpactofariskbasedinterventiononpipedwaterqualityinruralcommunitiesthecaseofmidwesternnepal AT markssaraj assessingtheimpactofariskbasedinterventiononpipedwaterqualityinruralcommunitiesthecaseofmidwesternnepal |