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Background: Water quality testing is critical for guiding water safety management and ensuring public health. In many settings, however, water suppliers and surveillance agencies do not meet regulatory requirements for testing frequencies. This study examines the conditions that promote successful water quality monitoring in Africa, with the goal of providing evidence for strengthening regulated water quality testing programs.Methods and Findings: We compared monitoring programs among 26 regulated water suppliers and surveillance agencies across six African countries. These institutions submitted monthly water quality testing results over 18 months. We also collected qualitative data on the conditions that influenced testing performance via approximately 821 h of semi-structured interviews and observations. Based on our qualitative data, we developed the Water Capacity Rating Diagnostic (WaterCaRD) to establish a scoring framework for evaluating the effects of the following conditions on testing performance: accountability, staffing, program structure, finances, and equipment & services. We summarized the qualitative data into case studies for each of the 26 institutions and then used the case studies to score the institutions against the conditions captured in WaterCaRD. Subsequently, we applied fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to compare these scores against performance outcomes for water quality testing. We defined the performance outcomes as the proportion of testing Targets Achieved (outcome 1) and Testing Consistency (outcome 2) based on the monthly number of microbial water quality tests conducted by each institution. Our analysis identified motivation & leadership, knowledge, staff retention, and transport as institutional conditions that were necessary for achieving monitoring targets. In addition, equipment, procurement, infrastructure, and enforcement contributed to the pathways that resulted in strong monitoring performance.Conclusions: Our identification of institutional commitment, comprising motivation & leadership, knowledge, and staff retention, as a key driver of monitoring performance was not surprising: in weak regulatory environments, individuals and their motivations take-on greater importance in determining institutional and programmatic outcomes. Nevertheless, efforts to build data collection capacity in low-resource settings largely focus on supply-side interventions: the provision of infrastructure, equipment, and training sessions. Our results indicate that these interventions will continue to have limited long-term impacts and sustainability without complementary strategies for motivating or incentivizing water supply and surveillance agency managers to achieve testing goals. More broadly, our research demonstrates both an experimental approach for diagnosing the systems that underlie service provision and an analytical strategy for identifying appropriate interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces an end-use-based system dynamics model to support municipal water planning and management over the medium-to long-term. The Calgary Water Management Model (CWMM) simulates water demand and use to 2040 at a weekly time step for ten municipal end-uses, as well as the effects of population growth, climate change, and various water management policies, and includes policy implementation costs for assessment of conservation versus economic trade-offs. The model was validated against historical water demand data for Calgary, Alberta. A series of scenario simulations showed (1) potentially large changes to both seasonal and non-seasonal water demands with climate change and population growth, (2) a need to enhance historical water management policies with new policies such as xeriscaping and greywater reuse to achieve water management goals, and (3) the value of an end-use based model in simulating management policy effects on municipal water demand and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National and sub-national governments develop and enforce regulations to ensure the delivery of safe drinking water in the United States (US) and countries worldwide. However, periodic contamination events, waterborne endemic illness and outbreaks of waterborne disease still occur, illustrating that delivery of safe drinking water is not guaranteed. In this study, we examined the potential added value of a preventive risk management approach, specifically, water safety plans (WSPs), in the US in order to improve drinking water quality. We undertook a comparative analysis between US drinking water regulations and WSP steps to analyze the similarities and differences between them, and identify how WSPs might complement drinking water regulations in the US. Findings show that US drinking water regulations and WSP steps were aligned in the areas of describing the water supply system and defining monitoring and controls. However, gaps exist between US drinking water regulations and WSPs in the areas of team procedures and training, internal risk assessment and prioritization, and management procedures and plans. The study contributes to understanding both required and voluntary drinking water management practices in the US and how implementing water safety plans could benefit water systems to improve drinking water quality and human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been lauded as an integrative and participatory form of governance. However, critics claim that actual implementation remains problematic, because of deep path dependencies and the entrenched interests. This paper investigates this claim by looking at the formation of collective choice rules in integrated water resources management reforms in China’s Yellow River and the Ganges in India. The two rivers provide a natural experiment—similarity in physical scale, complexity, and integrated water resources management reforms, but highly different in social and policy contexts. Using the Q methodology and Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, we find that, despite differences in policy contexts, narratives amongst the stakeholders in the two rivers are surprisingly similar, including a continued role for a negotiated local approach, and the presence of normative incentives for collective action, underwritten by deep historical meanings of the rivers. These narratives in turn provide some explanation for the choice of collective rules in use. They suggest that a modified form of integrated water resources management, taking into account narratives and collective choice rules, is useful for the governance of very large rivers across different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-revenue water (NRW) defined by the standard International Water Association (IWA) terminology is an important issue in the management of water supply systems (WSS). Its main component, water loss, is traditionally challenged by the managers of the WSS. The issue of NRW reduction is gaining in importance due to several impact factors: ageing WSS, increased energy costs and also new requirements set by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Beside the conventional water loss requirements and indicators, WFD sets additional requirements defined by the objective status of water bodies. The directive was addressed by the WATERLOSS EU-MED project, within which a decision support system (DSS) for the induction of NRW-reduction measures was developed. The DSS targets beyond the standard benchmarking approaches with the evaluation of indicators that serve for the identification of necessary measures. In the process of DSS development, three key components were connected in operative DSS: (1) system of indicators that is based upon the modified IWA benchmarking system; (2) comprehensive classification of all identified NRW-reduction measures; and (3) a rule-based system that connects both and induces priority measures on the basis of evaluated indicators. In the article, all three components will be presented with special emphasis on the induction process. The induction process is based upon multidimensional clustering and embedded expert knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the mid-1980s, liberalization has motivated numerous water supply reforms. Among these, privatization has received the most attention. Yet, its actual scope has been limited. Beyond privatization, the territorial expansion of municipally owned water corporations into new service areas can be witnessed in countries as diverse as Italy, South Africa, Canada, Colombia and the Netherlands. Generally, the activities of public water corporations are analyzed through the lens of commercialization. This framework is central to understanding recent shifts in water supply. Yet, while it addresses the effects of commercialization on service quality and access, it rarely integrates the influence of shifts in social reproduction and collective consumption in structuring reform. Drawing on theories of urban entrepreneurialism, I attempt to advance a broader analytical framework that is more amenable to integrating the diversity of processes involved, including but not limited to commercialization. At the same time, the territorial expansion of municipally owned water corporations suggests ways to rethink urban entrepreneurialism: it is not only commercial, it is also social, and it is Schumpeterian. To make these points, this article examines the efforts of two public water corporations to go international: EPM of Medellín, Colombia and WMD of Drenthe, the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Develop multi-objective optimal operation models for cascade reservoirs. • Hybrids Parallel Mechanism with optimization algorithms to optimize multi-objective. • Water supply contradiction and transformation rules among three objectives are obtained. • Optimal scheme ensures power generation efficiency, irrigation requirements and ecological safety. In recent years, the water conflict between competing users in the middle and lower reaches of the Heihe River has intensified, causing severe social, economic, and ecological problems. This research aims to alleviate water conflicts between multiple objectives that consider eight cascade reservoirs in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin to be the regulatory bodies using the optimal operation model and fuzzy optimization evaluation model. The innovative approach combining the parallel mechanism with optimization algorithms (i.e., Flower Pollination Algorithm and Non-dominated Neighbor Immune Algorithm) is proposed to solve the optimal operation models, analyze the time distribution laws of water supply dilemma and the transformation rules among three objectives (power generation, irrigation, and ecology). Based on the evaluation indicator system and subjective and objective comprehensive weighting methods (i.e., Analytic Hierarchy Process and Entropy Weight Method), a fuzzy optimization evaluation model is applied to search for the optimal dispatching scheme for the multi-objective joint operation of cascade reservoirs. Results indicate several findings. First, the Parallel - Flower Pollination Algorithm produces high precision and stability with outstanding calculation efficiency. Second, the period of the water supply dilemma is October and next April, and the annual water supply dilemma is affected by the frequency of incoming water. Third, the competitive relationship between irrigation and ecology is the strongest, followed by the relationship between ecology and power generation, the relationship between ecology and power generation is relatively weak. Fourth, the optimal dispatching scheme in each typical year is the scheme with the ratio values of the transformation coefficients among power generation, irrigation, and ecological objectives the closest to 1:1:1, respectively. It is conducive to scientifically guiding the dispatch of water resources in the Heihe River Basin, alleviating water conflicts, and ensuring socio-economic development and ecological safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unconventional drilling for natural gas by means of high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is an important global public health issue. Given that no sound epidemiologic study has been done to assess the extent of exposure-related adverse health effects among populations living in areas where natural gas extraction is going on, it is imperative that research be conducted to quantify the potential risks to the environment and to human health not just in the short-term, but over a longer time period since many diseases (i.e., cancers) appear years after exposure. It should not be concluded that an absence of data implies that no harm is being done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) paradigm has become an important framework in development and management of water resources. Many countries in the Southern Africa region have begun water sector reforms to align the sector with the IWRM concepts. In 2007 the Mozambican Government started to update the policy and the legal framework of the water sector to foster the application of IWRM concept as a basis for achieving sustainable development. However the steps towards the implementation of this national framework are still in preparation. This research aims to identify and establish a priority ranking of the fundamental factors likely to affect the outcome of the IWRM reforms in Mozambique. This study uses the hybrid multi-criteria decision method A’WOT, a methodology coined by Kurttila et al. (2000). This method relies on the combination of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) technique and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Using this procedure it is possible to identify and rank the factors affecting the functioning of a system. The key factors affecting the implementation of the IWRM, analysed in this study, were identified through an expert group discussion. These factors have been grouped into different categories of SWOT. Subsequently, the AHP methodology was applied to obtain the relative importance of each factor captured in the SWOT analysis; to this end the authors interviewed a panel of water resources management experts and practitioners. As a result, of this study and the application of the A’WOT methodology, the research identified and ranked the fundamental factors for the success of the IWRM strategy in Mozambique. The results of this study suggest that in Mozambique a planning strategy for the implementation of the IWRM should be guided mainly by combination of interventions in factors falling under opportunity and weakness SWOT groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The impact of ambitious water sector reforms, that have been implemented in many countries, has not been uniform, especially in Africa. It has been argued that the disconnect between the formal statutory reality at national level and what is happening on the ground may have widened rather than shrunk. There is, therefore, a renewed interest in local water allocation arrangements and how they function. This study looks at water sharing practices and agreements among smallholder farmers in Makanya catchment (300km2), which is part of Pangani river basin (42,200km2) in northern Tanzania. Existing water sharing agreements have been studied in the Vudee sub-catchment (25km2), which has about 38 irrigation furrows of which 20 have micro-dams. Five micro-dams are located at the downstream side of the sub-catchment. At the outlet of the Makanya catchment, farmers practice spate irrigation, using the residual flows from the highlands to irrigate. Based on interviews with smallholder farmers and supported by hydrological data water sharing agreements were found to exist among irrigators using the same furrow, among furrows using the same river and at sub-catchment scale. Some agreements date back to the 1940s. They mostly specify water sharing on a rotational basis at all three scales. No water sharing agreements were found at catchment scale, such as between the water users in Vudee sub-catchment and Makanya village. The study concludes that, as a result of the increase in demand for a diminishing resource, tradeoffs between upstream and downstream water uses have emerged at an increasingly larger spatial scale. At the catchment scale, downstream water users have changed their practices to accommodate the changes in the flow. Currently these claims for water do not clash as upstream water users use the base flow (which does not reach downstream anymore) and downstream water users utilise the flood flows. The water sharing arrangements at sub-catchment scale are negotiated through the social networks of the smallholder farmers and are therefore build on the social ties between the communities. However, at catchment scale, the social ties appear relatively weak in addition to the hydrological disconnect; these links are possibly too weak to build new water sharing arrangements on. It may therefore be necessary to involve more formal levels of government, such as Pangani Basin Water Office, to facilitate the negotiation process and create awareness on the inter-linkages of various water uses at catchment scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Managing water resources systems usually involves conflicts. Behaviors of stakeholders, who might be willing to contribute to improvements and reach a win–win situation, sometimes result in worse conditions for all parties. Game theory can identify and interpret the behaviors of parties to water resource problems and describe how interactions of different parties who give priority to their own objectives, rather than system’s objective, result in a system’s evolution. Outcomes predicted by game theory often differ from results suggested by optimization methods which assume all parties are willing to act towards the best system-wide outcome. This study reviews applicability of game theory to water resources management and conflict resolution through a series of non-cooperative water resource games. The paper illustrates the dynamic structure of water resource problems and the importance of considering the game’s evolution path while studying such problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article examines the limitations in access to sufficient quantity of water in rural communities in Alaska and their consequences to public health. Topics mentioned include the sources of water in rural Alaska including hauling water from a water treatment facility, rainwater, and water from natural bodies of water like rivers or ponds, the reasons for the limited supplies of water available, and the challenges in water distribution.

Abstract: A number of water resources management policies and legislations have been enacted in Malawi. The policies and legislations have been regulatory in nature. The Water Resources Act (1969) and the subsidiary Water Resources (Pollution Control) Regulations provide the main regulatory framework for water resources management. However, the Water Works Act (1995) is the main authority for establishing water supply and water-borne sanitation delivery services. Government introduced the 1994 Water Resources Management Policy and Strategies (WRMPS). This policy and strategies have been reviewed by the 1999 and 2005 WRMPS. The introduction of the National Environmental Policy and the call for harmonisation of natural resources management policy, legislation and institutional roles, warranted the review. This provides a conducive and enabling environment for sustainable Integrated Water ResourcesManagement (IWRM). The policies and legislation of other sectors benefiting and affecting the water field need to be in harmony with those drawn for water resources management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Save the Sand Project is a national pilot project for Integrated Catchment Management and Land Care. Catalysed by the 1992 drought, this initiative arose out of a precarious water security situation in the Sand River Catchment in South Africa. In a fundamental departure form the previous water act, the new Water Act (1998) provided the foundation and framework for adopting a new, integrated approach to water resource management. In keeping with the main themes of the act, namely water resource protection, equity amongst users and catchment management, an ecosystems approach has been adopted towards land and water management within the catchment. These include awareness raising, developmental activities, resource protection measures and rehabilitation initiatives. This paper aims to provide an overview of the key elements of the initiative, as well as to provide a critique of integration as the cornerstone of ICM, in order to provide lessons for the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]