Water Supply and Sewage Infrastructure in Ontario, 1880–1990s: Legal and Institutional Aspects of Public Health and Environmental History

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Benidickson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Institutional Aspects

Some Experimental Discussion of Accuracies in Quantitative Virus Assessment for Water Supply

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Hisashi Sumitomo
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Lake Biwa ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Statistical Procedure ◽  
Statistical Nature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Risk ◽  
Precise Assessment

Chlorination has been believed to be the best sterilization method in water supply engineering for many years. However, the recent carcinogenic problem of trihalomethanes (THM) formed from organic compounds by chlorination requires us to assess the public health risk of THM. The author tried an assessment of a suitable chlorination technique considering both the effects of THM and viruses on human health, using Lake Biwa as a representative example of a water resource in Japan. Statistical handling of data was revealed to be important because of the statistical nature of the data. In other words, since both concentrations are very low in tap water, we need to quantify both the effects and concentrations with probabilities. In the first part of this paper, a statistical procedure and numerical results of the assessment of virus and THM risks are shown. In the second part some results of accuracies in virus experiments are briefly shown. These experiments concerning statistical problems are particularly important for more precise assessment of the public risk of viruses in tap water.

scholarly journals Relationship (or its lack) between population and a water and sanitation service: a study of users' perception in Vitória (ES) Brazil

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 764-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Ramos da Silva ◽  
Léo Heller ◽  
Jorge de Campos Valadares ◽  
Sandy Cairncross
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Public Health Authority ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Water Handling ◽  
Inadequate Knowledge

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the perception of groups of dwellers of Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil, regarding their relationship with the water and sanitation service and aspects of water handling. Participants living in four distinct urban districts of the capital city were interviewed in their own houses and the Discourse of the Collective Subject approach was employed to order the data so obtained. The testimonies revealed the health risk to which individuals were exposed by virtue of: (i) inadequate knowledge concerning the water supply offered, (ii) lack of stimulus to exert their citizens' rights and obligations in relation to the water provided for their consumption and (iii) poor channels of communication between the community, the water and sanitation service and the local public health authority. The study concluded that there is a need to rethink the forms of information provided to the population that are presently adopted by these institutions.

Conceptual and Practical Aspects of Water Regulation in Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanford V. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Productive Efficiency ◽  
Water Sector ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Water Supply And Sanitation

Organizations regulating the water sector have major impacts on public health and the sustainability of supply to households, industry, power generation, agriculture, and the environment. Access to affordable water is a human right, but it is costly to produce, as is wastewater treatment. Capital investments required for water supply and sanitation are substantial, and operating costs are significant as well. That means that there are trade-offs among access, affordability, and cost recovery. Political leaders prioritize goals and implement policy through a number of organizations: government ministries, municipalities, sector regulators, health agencies, and environmental regulators. The economic regulators of the water sector set targets and quality standards for water operators and determine prices that promote the financial sustainability of those operators. Their decisions affect drinking water safety and sanitation. In developing countries with large rural populations, centralized water networks may not be feasible. Sector regulators often oversee how local organizations ensure water supply to citizens and address wastewater transport, treatment, and disposal, including non-networked sanitation systems. Both rural and urban situations present challenges for sector regulators. The theoretical rationale for water-sector regulation address operator monopoly power (restricting output) and transparency, so customers have information regarding service quality and operator efficiency. Externalities (like pollution) are especially problematic in the water sector. In addition, water and sanitation enhance community health and personal dignity: they promote cohesion within a community. Regulatory systems attempt to address those issues. Of course, government intervention can actually be problematic if short-term political objectives dominate public policy or rules are established to benefit politically powerful groups. In such situations, the fair and efficient provision of water and sanitation services is not given priority. Note that the governance of economic regulators (their organizational design, values or principles, functions, and processes) creates incentives (and disincentives) for operators to improve performance. Related ministries that provide oversight of the environment, health and safety, urban and housing issues, and water resource management also influence the long-term sustainability of the water sector and associated health impacts. Ministries formulate public policy for those areas under their jurisdiction and monitor its implementation by designated authorities. Ideally, water-sector regulators are somewhat insulated from day-to-day political pressures and have the expertise (and authority) to implement public policy and address emerging sector issues. Many health issues related to water are caused or aggravated by lack of clean water supply or lack of effective sanitation. These problems can be attributed to lack of access or to lack of quality supplied if there is access. The economic regulation of utilities has an effect on public health through the setting of quality standards for water supply and sanitation, the incentives provided for productive efficiency (encouraging least-cost provision of quality services), setting tariffs to provide cash flows to fund supply and network expansion, and providing incentives and monitoring so that investments translate into system expansion and better quality service. Thus, although water-sector regulators tend not to focus directly on health outcomes, their regulatory decisions determine access to safe water and sanitation.

scholarly journals The Best Advertisement a City Can Have: Public Health Services in Vancouver, 1886-1888

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret W. Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Waste Disposal ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
City Hospital ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Hospital Waste ◽  
Health Inspection

Vancouver was unlike many nineteenth centry Canadian cities in that it readily undertook to provide reasonably extensive public health services — a city hospital, waste disposal and drainage, a modern water supply, and health inspection. Provision of those services got fairly under way in the city's first two years, at which time (as later), those interested in the city's growth, who directed public expenditure there as in most cities of the time, encouraged up-to-date public health services as signs of municipal progress likely to attract additional settlers and capital. Public expenditures relating to health were supported as attractants which augmented the city's natural climatic advantages.

scholarly journals Content of Fluorine in Drinking Water in FYR Macedonia

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-37
Author(s):  
M. Carcev ◽  
D. Gjorgev ◽  
F. Tozija ◽  
H. Petanovski
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Dental Caries ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Longitudinal Studies ◽  
Optimal Concentration ◽  
Public Water Supply ◽  
The Public ◽  
Who Standards

Abstract From all the methods applied in preventing dental caries, the most significant is the use of fluorides. Nowadays, 6 decades after its massive use, it can certainly be argued that it is the most efficient, cheapest and safest way of preventing dental caries, confirmed by more than 150 longitudinal studies. In order to determine the presence of fluorides in drinking water, in coordination with the Institute for Public Health of the FYR Macedonia in 2009, we conducted a research for determining the presence of fluorides in drinking water from the public water supply in the country. The results from the research showed that concentration of fluorine in drinking water in our country is under 0.3ppm (0.3 mg per litre of water), which indicates a really low amount in accordance to the WHO standards. Optimal concentration was registered in only few water supply facilities in less settled areas, while hyper-fluorinated water was registered in few village wells, which were put out of use after they were located.

Social and public health implication of water supply in arid zones in the Sudan

1985 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. Awad El Karim ◽  
B.M. El Hassan ◽  
K.K. Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Arid Zones ◽  
Public Health Implication ◽  
Health Implication
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