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Evaluation of Rural Water Systems and Public Health
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Evaluation of Rural Water Systems and Public Health

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2014) | Viewed by 24090

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Charlotte D. Smith

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall #7360, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Interests: impact assessment and evaluation of rural water systems and public health programs in rural Central American communities; microbial ecology of waterborne pathogens; bacterial endosymbionts of free-living protozoa

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Millennium Development Goal of reducing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 50% is reported to be ahead of schedule (with respect to water access). However, a variety of questions may be posed in scrutinizing this claim: Are estimates of unidentified villages and un-named inhabitants appropriate for inclusion in global summaries concerning the burden of disease (that is incident to a lack of access to safe water)? What monitoring and reporting strategies exist to quantify the impacts of “improved” water systems? When impact assessments are performed, are the evaluation processes and the resulting information transparent and accessible to those served by the water system, as well as to those responsible for the oversight of said systems? With over 200 non-governmental organizations reporting delivery of water treatment systems to rural communities, can we be assured that the systems are effectively removing contaminants? This Special Issue focuses on the evaluation of rural water systems. Papers evaluating these systems from a public health perspective are invited.

Dr. Charlotte D. Smith
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.


Keywords

  • rural water
  • capacity
  • health outcomes
  • sustainability
  • evaluation
  • oversight
  • maintenance
  • participation
  • impact assessment
  • transparency

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

1578 KiB  
Article
Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Surface Water: A Case Study from Michigan, USA to Inform Management of Rural Water Systems
by Erin A. Dreelin, Rebecca L. Ives, Stephanie Molloy and Joan B. Rose
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2014, 11(10), 10480-10503; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph111010480 - 14 Oct 2014
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 9387
Abstract
Cryptosporidium and Giardia pose a threat to human health in rural environments where water supplies are commonly untreated and susceptible to contamination from agricultural animal waste/manure, animal wastewater, septic tank effluents and septage. Our goals for this paper are to: (1) explore the [...] Read more.
Cryptosporidium and Giardia pose a threat to human health in rural environments where water supplies are commonly untreated and susceptible to contamination from agricultural animal waste/manure, animal wastewater, septic tank effluents and septage. Our goals for this paper are to: (1) explore the prevalence of these protozoan parasites, where they are found, in what quantities, and which genotypes are present; (2) examine relationships between disease and land use comparing human health risks between rural and urban environments; and (3) synthesize available information to gain a better understanding of risk and risk management for rural water supplies. Our results indicate that Cryptosporidium and Giardia were more prevalent in rural versus urban environments based on the number of positive samples. Genotyping showed that both the human and animal types of the parasites are found in rural and urban environments. Rural areas had a higher incidence of disease compared to urban areas based on the total number of disease cases. Cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis were both positively correlated (p < 0.001) with urban area, population size, and population density. Finally, a comprehensive strategy that creates knowledge pathways for data sharing among multiple levels of management may improve decision-making for protecting rural water supplies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation of Rural Water Systems and Public Health)
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882 KiB  
Article
Identification and Assessment of Potential Water Quality Impact Factors for Drinking-Water Reservoirs
by Qing Gu, Jinsong Deng, Ke Wang, Yi Lin, Jun Li, Muye Gan, Ligang Ma and Yang Hong
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2014, 11(6), 6069-6084; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110606069 - 10 Jun 2014
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 7649
Abstract
Various reservoirs have been serving as the most important drinking water sources in Zhejiang Province, China, due to the uneven distribution of precipitation and severe river pollution. Unfortunately, rapid urbanization and industrialization have been continuously challenging the water quality of the drinking-water reservoirs. [...] Read more.
Various reservoirs have been serving as the most important drinking water sources in Zhejiang Province, China, due to the uneven distribution of precipitation and severe river pollution. Unfortunately, rapid urbanization and industrialization have been continuously challenging the water quality of the drinking-water reservoirs. The identification and assessment of potential impacts is indispensable in water resource management and protection. This study investigates the drinking water reservoirs in Zhejiang Province to better understand the potential impact on water quality. Altogether seventy-three typical drinking reservoirs in Zhejiang Province encompassing various water storage levels were selected and evaluated. Using fifty-two reservoirs as training samples, the classification and regression tree (CART) method and sixteen comprehensive variables, including six sub-sets (land use, population, socio-economy, geographical features, inherent characteristics, and climate), were adopted to establish a decision-making model for identifying and assessing their potential impacts on drinking-water quality. The water quality class of the remaining twenty-one reservoirs was then predicted and tested based on the decision-making model, resulting in a water quality class attribution accuracy of 81.0%. Based on the decision rules and quantitative importance of the independent variables, industrial emissions was identified as the most important factor influencing the water quality of reservoirs; land use and human habitation also had a substantial impact on water quality. The results of this study provide insights into the factors impacting the water quality of reservoirs as well as basic information for protecting reservoir water resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation of Rural Water Systems and Public Health)
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504 KiB  
Article
Monitoring the Presence of 13 Active Compounds in Surface Water Collected from Rural Areas in Northwestern Spain
by Alejandra Iglesias, Carolina Nebot, Beatriz I. Vázquez, Claudia Coronel-Olivares, Carlos M. Franco Abuín and Alberto Cepeda
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2014, 11(5), 5251-5272; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110505251 - 15 May 2014
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6692
Abstract
Drug residues are considered environmental contaminants, and their occurrence has recently become a matter of concern. Analytical methods and monitoring systems are therefore required to control the continuous input of these drug residues into the environment. This article presents a suitable HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method [...] Read more.
Drug residues are considered environmental contaminants, and their occurrence has recently become a matter of concern. Analytical methods and monitoring systems are therefore required to control the continuous input of these drug residues into the environment. This article presents a suitable HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for the simultaneous extraction, detection and quantification of residues of 13 drugs (antimicrobials, glucocorticosteroids, anti-inflammatories, anti-hypertensives, anti-cancer drugs and triphenylmethane dyes) in surface water. A monitoring study with 549 water samples was carried out in northwestern Spain to detect the presence of drug residues over two sampling periods during 2010, 2011 and 2012. Samples were collected from rural areas with and without farming activity and from urban areas. The 13 analytes were detected, and 18% of the samples collected showed positive results for the presence of at least one analyte. More collection sites were located in rural areas than in urban areas. However, more positive samples with higher concentrations and a larger number of analytes were detected in samples collected from sites located after the discharge of a WWTP. Results indicated that the WWTPs seems to act as a concentration point. Positive samples were also detected at a site located near a drinking water treatment plant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation of Rural Water Systems and Public Health)
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