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The ancient civilizations of China and Greece, in the east and the west, have both subsequently deeply influenced other civilizations, regionally and across the world. Water management played a significant role in both civilizations and evidence demonstrates that many principles and technologies were generated by them, throughout both civilizations' long histories. As a result, they significantly influenced the ancient world broadly, some of which are still functioning up till this present time. This study comprises the following: methodology, hydrogeology, aqueducts and water impounds, water and wastewater mains, runoff management, agricultural irrigation, as well as the use of water for recreation purposes. Usually, urban hydro-technologies reflect a progressive situation in water management. Thus, both civilizations have also achieved urban water management. Therefore, for the purpose of understanding the role of water management in ancient civilizations and their similarities and differences beyond their geography, a comparison of urban hydro-technologies was selectively developed through the long history of the ancient Chinese and Greek civilizations, which also features the basic principle of water management in the human societies beyond these two civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the microbiological safety of the water distribution system of a city in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), population 120,000 inhabitants. During the study, the city suffered a severe drought that had a significant impact on water availability and quality in the river that supplies water to the city. Samples (2 liters) were collected from the distribution system over a period of six months, which included wet and dry months, from three points: the point with the lowest altitude in the distribution network, the farthest point from the water treatment works, and an intermediate point. Free chlorine was measured in situ using a Hach kit. DNA was extracted using a FastDNA Spin Kit Soil (Qbiogene). Advanced sequencing techniques (Ion Torrent) were used to identify and quantify the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria present in the samples. Coliforms and Escherichia coli, indicators currently used worldwide to assess microbiological safety of drinking water, were measured on all samples using an enzyme substrate method (ONPG-MUG Colilert®). Next generation sequencing results retrieved 16SrRNA sequences of E. coli and some potentially pathogenic bacteria, even in the presence of free chlorine. Operational taxonomic units related to pathogenic bacteria were present in all samples from the drinking water distribution system (DWS) and, in general, at high relative abundance (up to 5%). A total of 19 species related to bacterial pathogens were detected. Inadequate operational practices that could affect the microbiological safety of the DWS were identified and discussed. The current paper is the first to evaluate the community of potentially pathogenic bacteria in a real DWS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a water safety plan (WSP) is now a requirement for all service providers of drinking water in the Philippines. To assist compliance with the Philippine Department of Health (DOH), this study develops an index model that the DOH can use for evaluating WSPs and covers the WSPs of 14 water districts and 11 health care facilities. The WSP Index model was developed using a nine-step process and was tested in 25 WSPs to determine the robustness of its weights and benchmark. Approximately 21 WSPs received a passing mark when the 60% benchmark was used but only nine WSPs passed when the benchmark was raised to 74%. This Philippine model may be utilized by countries in evaluating the WSPs, and further adapted to their local context and considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a high drinkable quality, many people avoid tap water because of vague anxiety about its safety. Conjoint analysis (CA) was conducted to determine what factors are considered important for consumers' selection of drinking water. The information provision effect was also investigated inside CA profiles using different model equations. Results indicate that the perception of the safety of tap water was much lower than that of other waters. Higher levels of water hardness and cancer risk negatively influenced selection of drinking water, while third-party certifications about taste and safety positively impacted it. When cancer risk was shown in a CA profile, the weight given to other attributes decreased. Among different socio-demographic groups, gender was important in establishing drinking water preferences with men paying less attention to the benefits of water-dispensers and certifications from third parties. Besides, age also has some influence on drinking water selection. People's consciousness of taste, safety, cost, and handling for drinking water were assessed using an analytic hierarchy process and the scores were incorporated in a CA equation. The results suggest that improving people's perceptions of the taste and safety of tap water can promote consumers' selection of tap water as drinking water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health risks from drinking rainwater are relatively small in the developing world context, but action is needed to ensure water safety. Water safety plans (WSPs) use an approach to manage water quality that has shown signs of success with public and communal water supplies, but relatively little research has been done to investigate the application of WSPs to self-supply systems. The aim of this paper is to investigate the primary issues surrounding appropriate water quality management of domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH) systems in Fiji and consider how the principles of WSPs can be applied in this context. A qualitative research design was followed, utilising semi-structured interviews with 34 rural households and six key informants, sanitary inspections of DRWH systems and thematic data analysis. A number of challenges, including limited government resources and the limited knowledge and casual attitudes of rural rainwater consumers, constrain the practicality of adopting conventional WSPs at the household level, but steps for improvement can be taken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsafe water remains a significant public health threat in high and low income countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes Water Safety Plans (WSPs) as the most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply. Although health benefits of WSP implementation have been shown, there is a lack of information relating water supplier characteristics to expected costs. Costing practices were adapted from food quality management studies and applied to six water suppliers from the Western Pacific Region, as designated by WHO. The explanation building procedure was used to develop understanding of relationships between drinking-water supply agency (DWSA) characteristics and WSP implementation costs. The results indicate that costs associated with WSP implementation are expected to be low for developed DWSAs; however, for developing DWSAs, there is high variability in costs which indicates further research may not improve generalized WSP cost estimations. Furthermore, developing DWSAs experience large and highly variable capital and operational monitoring costs. The capital and operational monitoring improvements are necessary to achieving a safe water supply and may require ongoing financial and technical resources to execute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) for the city of Salta (Argentina) is presented and discussed. To develop this WSP, we used an adapted version of the methodology proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The new method included a preliminary weighting procedure to assess the relative importance of different parts of the system, and a more systematic estimation of the magnitude of control measures. These modifications allowed the definition of a variety of risk reduction strategies. The risk assessment step was performed during participatory workshops with members of the local water company. The Initial Risk for the entire system was 30.2%, with variations among processes, subprocesses and components. More than 60% of the hazardous situations identified require control measures to reduce the risk below an acceptable threshold. If all control measures were successfully implemented, the Final Risk could be lowered to 17.7%. Methodological changes introduced allowed a more detailed analysis of the risks and can be an important improvement of the assessment procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) concept has become a globally recognized and accepted approach to drinking water supply management and operation. Many countries around the world are adopting this proactive, risk-based model for ensuring consistent confidence in drinking water safety, accessibility and affordability. While it is widely accepted that the WSP concept is an appropriate tool for ensuring drinking-water supply efficiency, the process for gathering the required evidence to demonstrate this continues to be rather vague. The problem may lie fundamentally in the way WSPs are developed and implemented. This paper discusses the need for establishing performance targets, identifying key performance indicators and monitoring these to build a body of evidence that would be instrumental in demonstrating whether WSPs are effective or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) is considered the preferred approach to ensure drinking water safety by the World Health Organization (WHO). This approach ideally requires extensive scientific and technical input from a multidisciplinary team of experts. However, in small- and medium-sized municipalities in Austria, financial and personnel resources are usually of very limited availability. Therefore, a spreadsheet based WSP tool was designed to facilitate the implementation of the WSP approach at these small supply units. The WSP tool comprises the relevant national Austrian guidelines, which include the key components of the WSP by the WHO. The tool provides an overview of the required steps explains how to carry out each step and guides the user through the three key components: system and hazards assessment, control measures and operational monitoring, and management. The practical application of the WSP tool was tested at 12 water utilities over a period of three months. After this period, the tool was improved based on collected feedback from the water utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a good legislative framework, South Africa faces significant challenges in the sustainable provision of adequate and safe water services. To improve the situation, South Africa's Department of Water Affairs (DWA) and other water sector partners undertook initiatives to assist municipalities with operation and management of water services. By way of example, in 2006, the municipal engineering oriented electronic Water Quality Management System (eWQMS) was implemented, providing municipalities with a platform for loading drinking water quality data and tracking performance of key water services management functions. Following this in 2008, DWA introduced an incentive-based regulatory programme, Blue Drop Certification (BDC), and the associated regulatory drinking water quality information system, the Blue Drop System (BDS) which is, for example, populated with data loaded by municipalities onto eWQMS. An integral part of BDC is the development of Water Safety Plans (WSPs). Due to the challenges faced by municipalities in developing WSPs, the Water Research Commission (WRC) saw a need to assist municipalities, and subsequently a generic Water Safety Plan for Small Community Water Supplies was developed. The WRC also saw the need to develop an easy-to-use WSP tool for municipalities. The eWQMS was selected as the platform for making the tool available. This paper presents the development of a web-enabled WSP tool on the eWQMS which ultimately will provide the information to the BDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The third edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality establishes a 'Framework for Safe Drinking-water' that promotes a risk assessment and risk management approach called Water Safety Plan (WSP). In Germany, the discussion on the WSP approach started with significant scepticism by various stakeholders questioning its added value in light of the high quality and service level of water supply. In response, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Environment Agency and the DVGW Association for Gas and Water jointly took the leadership for initiating a sectoral dialogue process involving water suppliers and local public health offices, including a series of WSP pilot projects to evaluate WSP feasibility, benefits and expected challenges for scaling-up. As the regulatory system in Germany makes explicit reference to 'generally acknowledged codes of good practice' the paper also examines how far the suite of established DVGW technical and managerial standards already supports WSP implementation. The evaluation process confirmed an added value of the WSP approach under Germany's national conditions, clearly providing an impetus for safeguarding a high quality and service level of drinking-water supply. Various activities to support scale-up implementation of a WSP-type approach have been initiated, including the preparation of step-by-step guidance in German (i.e. DVGW Guidelines W 1001), information campaigns to broadly raise awareness amongst all stakeholders in water supply, and capacity building initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Water Safety Plan (WSP) is a preventive, risk management approach to ensure drinking water safety. This emerging methodology is being increasingly applied in both industrialized and lower income countries worldwide. In 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other local, national, and international partners in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) initiated a series of WSP demonstration projects. The objectives were to raise WSP awareness, build capacity, and promote adoption of the WSP approach while identifying those factors that aid or hinder water safety planning efforts in resource-challenged settings. This paper presents eleven lessons learned from these WSP demonstration projects, including the importance of assembling a well-supported interagency team, long-term commitment to WSP implementation, adherence to a water quality monitoring plan, and determining how WSP impacts will be evaluated prior to WSP initiation. To assist in supporting future WSP activity in the region, this paper shares experiences that led to these successes, challenges, and lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year 2800 deaths in Pacific island countries result from diarrhoea, and most are children under five years of age. These tragic diarrheal deaths are preventable as they are often linked to unsafe water, lack of proper sanitation facilities and poor hygienic practices. Effective preventive management through the framework of a drinking Water Safety Plan (WSP) is an efficient mechanism for ensuring the safe quality of drinking water thereby reducing the burden of water related diseases. The large proportion (81%) of people in Pacific island countries living in rural or outer island communities mostly have their own water supply (for example rainwater tanks or hand-dug wells), and often the water is consumed untreated. The remoteness and isolation of these rural communities prevent national surveillance authorities to regularly visit and provide advice on drinking water safety issues. In such circumstances empowering rural communities to ensure the safety of their drinking water, through trained local facilitators, could be promoted and utilised effectively. However, WSPS for rural communities have to be relatively simple hence tools such as modified sanitary inspections and the presence/absence hydrogen sulfide test could be used. The approach of empowering communities through trained local facilitators to promote the WSP framework has been implemented in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI). Positive feedback has been received by trained facilitators in RMI on the use of modified sanitary inspections (translated into Marshallese) and the hydrogen sulfide test. It is believed that the approach of empowering communities on WSPs through training local facilitators and equipping them with the above mentioned simple tools is effective and has potential for further replication in rural Pacific communities to improve drinking water quality and reduce the burden of water related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) aims to ensure safe drinking water through risk assessment and preventive risk management which cover all steps of the water supply from catchment to the consumer, This approach requires a comprehensive hazard assessment including the identification and prioritisation of potential hazardous events. The Failure Experience Improvement System (FEIS) supports this key step in developing a WSP. The FEIS can assist water utilities in identifying the causes and effects of hazardous events, determining priorities for risk management and locating vulnerable points in their water supply system. This is achieved through the systematic collection of failure causes and their effects in a database and an analysis of the resulting failure network using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The FEIS provides both graphical visualisation of failure propagation and analytical indicators to evaluate hazardous events. This paper demonstrates the use of the FEIS to support the WSP approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the third edition of the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, the World Health Organization concludes that an integrated management of risks in source waters, treatment systems and distribution networks is the most effective way to guarantee safe drinking water to consumers. The integrated approach is fundamental to avoid sub-optimisation of risk-reduction measures. This paper presents an application of an integrated and quantitative risk model for comparing risk-reduction measures to support decisions for reaching specified water safety targets. A fault tree approach is used for structuring the risk analysis and for estimating the risk, expressed as Customer Minutes Lost (CML). Input information is a combination of hard data and expert judgements. Uncertainties in input information are considerable and modelled by a Bayesian statistical approach. A drinking water system in Sweden is used to exemplify model application. Quantitative safety targets have been confirmed at the political level as a basis for long-term planning of investments and reinvestments. One target defines an acceptable risk level of 144 annual CML for the average consumer. For the current system structure an estimated risk of 612CML was obtained. Four risk-reduction alternatives were compared and they reduce the risk to between 50 and 81 CML, i.e. below the acceptable level. The paper describes how a structured and thorough analysis of risk-reduction measures can facilitate transparency and long-term planning of drinking water systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perchlorate is an unregulated contaminant, and recently, many cases of perchlorate contamination have been reported in the US. Unregulated contaminants (e.g. perchlorate) in drinking water are also of significant concern in Korea. we investigated perchlorate levels in tap water, river water, and sewerage water at 4 major water sources in Korea from June 2006. Tap water samples in the Nakdong River basin contained high perchlorate levels. Of the other sampling sites, one at Daegu showed the highest perchlorate level, 22.3 μg/L. The first 2 investigations of raw water sources for drinking water in the Nakdong River basin, found relatively high perchiorate concentration, 18.7-95.6 μg/L and 4.0-25.6 μg/L. The high perchlorate concentration in the Nakdong River basin was possibly derived from waste water discharged by an LCD (liquid crystal display) manufacturing factory in Gumi. The perchlorate concentration of waste water from the nearby sewerage water treatment plant was 730-1,858 μg/L. we modified the waste water treatment operation system at the LCD factory to reduce the perchlorate emissions from this source. The modified treatment system reduced the perchlorate concentration in the final effluent to 40-70 μg/L. Source reduction was successfully achieved by the modified treatment process and by using a perchlorate-free etching reagent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System assessment is the part of the Water Safety Plan that evaluates whether a water supply system is capable of producing drinking water that meets the health-based targets. System assessment can be done at increasing level of detail, requiring more site specific information as the level of detail increases. Four case studies are presented with increasing level of detail, showing the type of information that is required for each of these levels and how each level informs risk management. The first case study shows how a system assessment can be performed without other site specific information than the type of source water and the type of treatment processes. The required data for the system assessment are collected from the large body of literature available. The second case study uses site specific microbial indicator data. The third study uses pathogen data and the fourth case study combines data on pathogens, microbial indicators and process parameters. The case studies show that the level of detail required largely depends on the risk management question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]