Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(1) Sanitary conditions and microbial water quality were signi
cantly
improved. Speci
cally, diarrhea morbidity was reduced by 12 percent in
final assessment compared to the baseline assessment.
(2) Application of the pilot projects in communities produced a positive
feedback and WSPs were being widely accepted by communities. The
community leaders directly improved the safety of the drinking water by
using WSPs, particularly by moving sources of contaminants such as
latrines and animal pens away from drinking water sources. They also
cleaned the surrounding areas of the water supplies.
the
However, the performance of rainwater harvesters and shallow tube wells that
are mainly provided by households were far from being successful. This may have
been due to lack of training for household suppliers or due to other factors.
2. Surveillance
Surveillance refers to a process of water quality testing, sanitary inspection and
audit undertaken to ensure the safety of drinking water supply, which was con-
trolled by the Bangladesh Department of the Environment (Arsenic Policy Support
Unit 2006 ). Although an independent agency would be more conducive to moni-
toring the performance of water supply, it proved to be dif
cult in rural areas. The
Bangladesh Department of the Environment had limited capacity for implementing
the surveillance program. For this reason, the Department of Public Health Engi-
neering and some NGOs assisted in conducting the surveillance. However, the
biggest challenge was the fact that the total amount of shallow tube wells had
reached between 7.5 and 10 million in Bangladesh; most of the shallow tube wells
were owned by households. Monitoring these was an impossible task.
Perhaps, an appropriate way of dealing with the challenge would be to focus on
the community water supplies. Thus, the development of community monitoring
tools is necessary in ensuring the quality of community water supplies. The com-
munity monitoring tools were used to conduct maintenance and to remove the
sources of hazards in an appropriate manner, ensuring that there is a safe distance
between sources of hazards and the water supply.
In practice, some village committees achieved good performance in the imple-
mentation of WSPs via community monitoring tools. However, some monitoring
activities carried out by those responsible were not well documented. For example,
as a part of the community monitoring tools, a record-keeping chart is used to
record monitoring activities, but 58 percent of them did not complete the record-
keeping chart (Arsenic Policy Support Unit 2006 ).
Removing the threats to health required adequate chlorination for dug wells and
ponds; some households largely rejected the use of chlorine and very few house-
holds were found to continue chlorination over longer periods of time. It is unclear
if the model WSPs made a real and long-lasting impact in Bangladesh; the 10
million tube wells do not appear to have bene
ted from the WSP. Finally, the
rejection of chlorination by many households seems to indicate that after an initial
decline in morbidity, it is likely to go back up again as the water will continue to be
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