scholarly journals Drinking Water Source Protection for Surface Water Abstractions: An Overview of the Group Water Scheme Sector in the Republic of Ireland

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2437
Author(s):  
Alec Rolston ◽  
Suzanne Linnane

Source protection is part of a multi-solution approach for the provision of safe drinking water. In the Republic of Ireland, community-led Group Water Schemes (GWS) provide treated drinking water to approximately 69,000 rural households. Between 2009 and 2019, preliminary source protection assessments were undertaken for 70 GWS abstracting from surface water sources to provide physical catchment characterisation and untreated and treated water quality analysis. Catchment areas upstream of abstraction points varied in size, with 51.5% being less than 5 km2 and only 10.7% being larger than 100 km2. The majority (91%) of assessed GWS serve a population of less than 3000 people, and 94% supply less than 1500 m3 per day. Exceedances of the EU Drinking Water Regulations were recorded for 27 parameters, with the greatest number of exceedances due to total trihalomethanes followed by microbial contamination. The most frequent recommendation for improving GWS drinking water quality was associated with managing livestock access to local water bodies. Improving stakeholder engagement represented 38% of all recommendations made. Drinking water source protection measures and catchment-scale actions can be an additional model to assist in the delivery of Integrated Catchment Management and river basin management planning in the Republic of Ireland. For the GWS sector, challenges lie in securing resources to improve both source water and drinking water quality to deliver integrated catchment management plans for source protection.

Author(s):  
Hew Cameron Merrett ◽  
Wei Tong Chen ◽  
Jao Jia Horng

The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to understand the hazards present in the catchment then plan and implement control measures to manage water quality risk to levels which can be controlled through downstream barriers. The programs in place to manage source protection are complex sociotechnical systems involving policy, standards, regulators, technology, human factors and so on. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyze the operational hazards of a typical drinking water source protection (DWSP) program and identify control measures to ensure safe operations. To validate the results a questionnaire was developed and distributed to specialists in DWSP in Taiwan, Australia and Greece. Using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the questionnaire responses, the study identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for DWSP. The four factors identified are ‘Policy and Government Agency Support of Source Protection’, ‘Catchment Risk Monitoring and Information’, ‘Support of Operational Field Activities’ and ‘Response to Water Quality Threats’. The results of this study provide insight into the approach of grouping of source protection measures to identify a series of targeted CSF for operational source protection programs. Using CSF can aide catchment management agencies in ensuring that the risk level in the catchment is managed effectively and that threats to public health from drinking water are managed appropriately.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-548
Author(s):  
V. M. Jayasooriya ◽  
V. M. M. Perera ◽  
S. Muthukumaran

Abstract Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) is a fatal disease that causes death from kidney failure due to unknown risk factors and has already affected more than 400,000 people in the rural agricultural landscape (dry zone) of Sri Lanka. The major drinking source in Sri Lanka is groundwater and it is suspected that the pollution of groundwater sources due to agricultural means has a major impact on CKDu. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether rainwater can be used as an alternative safe drinking water source in Girandurukotte area, Sri Lanka, which is known to be an area endemic for CKDu. The physical, chemical, and biological analyses were performed to compare the water quality parameters of three water sources (groundwater, surface water, and rainwater) for Girandurukotte area. The most common storage tanks in polyethylene (PE) and ferrocement (FC) were compared to assess the influence of the material of rainwater tank on water quality. The results showed that there is a significant difference in rainwater in terms of water quality compared to groundwater and surface water. Rainwater in FC and PE tanks showed significant differences (p < 0.05) for some parameters however, they were still within accepted potable drinking water standards.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hew Cameron Merrett ◽  
Wei Tong Chen ◽  
Jao Jia Horng

The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to understand the hazards present in the catchment then plan and implement control measures to manage water quality risk to levels which can be controlled through downstream barriers. The programs in place to manage source protection are complex sociotechnical systems involving policy, standards, regulators, technology, human factors and so on. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyze the operational hazards of a typical drinking water source protection (DWSP) program and identify countermeasures to ensure safe operations. To validate the STPA results a questionnaire was developed based on selective grouping of the initial countermeasures identified and distributed to specialists in DWSP in Taiwan, Australia and Greece. Through statistical analysis using Principle Components Analysis (PCA), the study identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for DWSP based on the questionnaire responses. The four CSFs identified were “Policy and Government Agency Support of Source Protection”, “Catchment Risk Monitoring and Information”, “Support of Operational Field Activities” and “Response to Water Quality Threats”. The results of this study provide insight into the approach of grouping of source protection measures to identify a series of targeted CSF for operational source protection programs. Using CSF can aid catchment management agencies in ensuring that the risk level in the catchment is managed effectively and that threats to public health from drinking water are managed appropriately.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Amie Siedlecki ◽  

For many communities, drinking water comes from surface water sources, or source water, such as rivers and creeks. Within the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, this is the case. The Rogue River, which spans 215 miles, beginning near Crater Lake and emptying into the ocean at Gold Beach, is Grants Pass’ drinking water source. While the capacity of the Rogue River, in relation to drinking water, is rarely an issue for the City of Grants Pass’ Public Works Department, the potential contaminant sources (PCS) from the urban, commercial, and industrial geographical areas of Grants Pass is a concern. In order to deploy treatment processes that are capable of targeting these PCS, it is important to have an idea of where and how these PCS are reaching the storm drains, creeks, and eventually the Rogue River. The purpose of this study was to identify area-specific risk components and how those components spatially aligned with PCS and their locations. Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and a risk matrix were used to rank the PCS according to risk in relation to Grants Pass’ source water intake. PCS ranked as high priority, or exuding the highest risk to drinking water quality, were followed up with onthe- ground surveys. After surveying the high priority PCS, best management practices (BMP) recommendations were made to the City of Grants Pass to better protect the drinking water quality. Branching off of this initial project work came similar studies in many other Rogue Basin communities. With this continued work, improvements were made to streamline the processes, such as recording survey observations. Overall, this project work has led to many discoveries regarding threats to drinking water quality and how to best respond to certain types of threats.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. O. Jenkins

This paper discusses the findings of a research project which explored the impact of varying organisational arrangements on drinking water quality in England and Wales, and the Republic of Ireland. It is established that drinking water quality has been of a consistently higher standard in England and Wales in comparison with the Republic of Ireland. It is also demonstrated that the associated organisational arrangements in England and Wales have been more successful in tackling certain problematic drinking water quality parameters. The paper concludes by arguing that national governments, and their regulatory agencies, should view the rationalisation of organisations involved in the provision of drinking water as key to ensuring better drinking water quality. It is also suggested that state regulators who are responsible for ensuring the quality of drinking water end their dependency on water providers for quality data. They should instead become capable of directly monitoring drinking water quality via their own sampling regime. It is argued that this organisational arrangement would be representative of a more progressive and robust organisational approach to ensuring the supply of safe high quality drinking water.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 168-176
Author(s):  
M. G. Daudova ◽  
R. B. Bagomedova ◽  
K. K. Bekshokov ◽  
M. M. Medzhidova ◽  
S. M. Nakhibashev ◽  
...  

Aim. Study of the influence of drinking water quality on the ecologically-dependent morbidity of the population of the Republic of Dagestan.Material and Methods. Methods of current and retrospective analysis of regional health indicators and methods of mathematical-statistical and medical-geographical analysis were used. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using the STATISTICA and Excel software packages. When carrying out laboratory studies on the quality of drinking water, we used a Lumex atomic absorption spectrometer "MGA-915MD".Results. Numerous hygiene studies indicate the direct impact of unsatisfactory drinking water quality on the health of a population. The relationship between sanitary and chemical indicators and the incidence rate for a number of nosological forms has been proven. It is generally accepted that human health is influenced by lifestyle factors (working, living and relaxation conditions), heredity and the ecological condition of the area of residence, including the quality of drinking water. Although it is not possible to differentiate the share of the negative effect caused by the consumption of poor quality drinking water but the incidence of certain nosological forms (cancer of the esophagus, gastrointestinal tract and kidney diseases) in the those regions of the Republic of Dagestan under consideration correlates with the characteristics of drinking water.Conclusion. The problem of pollution of water supply sources for the population in the dynamics of the long-term remains a priority concern. The quality and safety of drinking water are decreasing, which cannot but have a negative impact on public health. Correlation linkages between indicators of drinking water quality and oncological morbidity of the population were also established in indicators below the maximum permissible concentrations, which corresponds to a typical logistic model of causal relationships and serves as evidence of the high dependence of health disorders on chemical contamination of water supply sources. 


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