Search

This study advances methods of measuring access to water by providing a framework that can be operationalized by practitioners to inform decision and policy making. A modified WPI was developed and deployed in India, with results indicating significant differences between WPI and many indicator scores both between and within administrative territories. Spatial analyses identified significant clustering of WPI and indicator scores, indicating that scores are not randomly distributed. Three weight schemes were applied, two of which were informed by local stakeholders. The weight schemes highlighted the subjectivity of weighting and importance of including local populations in water development and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural hazard risk assessment generally focuses on a single hazard type, such as earthquakes, landslides, or floods. This emphasis tends to consider physical processes in isolation. However, most locations are simultaneously at risk to multiple, interacting hazards that generate cascading effects or synergies. Although scholars have proposed a multi-hazard risk framework based on probabilities, the quality and quantity of data required for such an approach are often unavailable in developing countries. Using geospatial and socioeconomic data, this study represents a first step in assessing multi-hazard risk in the city of Dharan, Nepal. Three hazards—landslides, floods, and earthquakes—were considered for an integrated hazard assessment using statistical methods and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We employed a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) to create a vulnerability map of the study area, which was then combined with a multi-hazard hazard map to produce a total risk map. Our results indicate that eastern Dharan along the Seuti River and southwestern Dharan on the left bank of the Sardu River are at high risk to multiple hazards. Central Dharan and the hills in the western portion of the city are categorized as low risk areas. Data limitations, such as availability and spatial resolution, did not allow for dynamic modeling; however, our results identified the spatial extent of low to high risk areas, which can inform future disaster planning. For example, the methodology and results of this study could assist in the development of disaster risk reduction programs and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines user perceptions of existing water services and proposed prepaid water meter and solar power innovations to improve water services in Tanzania. Based on 14 key informant interviews and six focus group discussions that included 61 participants, data from three rural and three urban study sites reveal that existing water services are generally perceived as poor, and the proposed prepayment and solar innovations offer benefits including increased transparency, accountability, and convenience. However, users also perceived challenges with the proposed innovations, including disenfranchisement of vulnerable populations and technical difficulties. The Government of Tanzania may implement the prepaid water meter and solar power technologies in the near future. Thus, it is critical to incorporate user perceptions on the acceptability, feasibility, and scalability of such technologies prior to large-scale implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field studies on household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) suggest that positive health outcomes are strongly linked to user compliance. We investigated factors that influenced compliance in a marginalized community of South India where residents worked with researchers to develop a water treatment intervention in absence of government water utilities. Survey and water quality data were collected during a 12-month randomized controlled trial of 124 households. Data were used to construct indices for social, technical, and institutional predictors of compliance including technological effectiveness, gender, community capacity, perceived benefit, and inherent demand. Perceived benefit was the only parameter to be significantly associated with compliance. Households in which participants had “very high” levels of perceived benefit were over 4 times more likely to comply with instructions on water treatment and maintenance with the HWTS. These findings suggest that compliance, and therefore disease prevention, can be improved by enhancing perceived benefit to the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a modified water poverty index that captures several waterscape attributes to better understand complex issues surrounding water. Household surveys (n= 300), water quality tests (n= 375) and qualitative methods were deployed to examine 14 post-tsunami settlements in Nagapattinam and Karaikal Districts (India) through the lens of water. Data were used to develop a contextualized, participant-driven water poverty index to measure water poverty at several scales. Statistical tests revealed significant differences between the two districts (p≤ .0001) and between rural and urban areas within each district (p≤ .0001). Three weight schemes (one dictated entirely by research participants) produced analogous outcomes though predicated on different indicator arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Point-of-use water treatment has received widespread application in the developing world to help mitigate waterborne infectious disease. This study examines the efficacy of a combined filter and chemical disinfection technology in removing bacterial contaminants, and more specifically changes in its performance resulting from seasonal weather variability. During a 12-month field trial in Chennai, India, mean log-reductions were 1.51 forE. coliand 1.67 for total coliforms, and the highest concentration of indicator bacteria in treated water samples were found during the monsoon season. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences in the microbial load of indicator organisms (coliforms andE. coli) between seasons, storage time since treatment (TST), and samples with and without chlorine residuals. Findings indicate that the bacteriological quality of drinking water treated in the home is determined by a complex interaction of environmental and sociological conditions. Moreover, while the effect of disinfection was independent of season, the impact of storage TST on water quality was found to be seasonally dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water projects triggered by disaster reconstruction processes are inherently unique and warrant a specialized approach. Thus, the objective of this article is to guide reconstruction actors toward the establishment of more culturally and environmentally sensitive water arrangements by providing a framework of key points to consider. Water infrastructure introduced after disasters differs from “normal” water infrastructure in several distinct ways: nature and needs of the subjects, expectations of recovery and rehabilitation, scale, funding and organizational structure, resettlement, and temporal constraints. Acknowledging these differences, a framework is presented to more aptly manage water sector reconstruction. The framework—informed by fieldwork in post-tsunami South India, the literature, and gaps therein—seeks to minimize project failures that have surfaced across space, time, and disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article scrutinizes the boiling of water in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India. Boiling, as it is commonly practiced, improves water quality, but its full potential is not being realized. Thus, the objective is to refine the method in practice, promote acceptability, and foster the scalability of boiling and household water treatment (HWT) writ large. The study is based on bacteriological samples from 300 households and 80 public standposts, 14 focus group discussions (FGDs), and 74 household interviews. Collectively, the data fashion both an empirical and ethnographic understanding of boiling. The rate and efficacy of boiling, barriers to and caveats of its adoption, and recommendations for augmenting its practice are detailed. While boiling is scientifically proven to eliminate bacteria, data demonstrate that pragmatics inhibit their total destruction. Furthermore, data and the literature indicate that a range of cultural, economic, and ancillary health factors challenge the uptake of boiling. Fieldwork and resultant knowledge arrive at strategies for overcoming these impediments. The article concludes with recommendations for selecting, introducing, and scaling up HWT mechanisms. A place-based approach that can be sustained over the long-term is espoused, and prolonged exposure by the interveners coupled with meaningful participation of the target population is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of disasters rarely reveal themselves equally across an affected population. Rather, the extent of impact is determined by social constructs, such as religion, caste, socioeconomic status and most notably, gender, which cuts across all of these spheres. This article focuses on the variable of gender and the role it played in post-tsunami Tamil Nadu, India. In particular, gender will be discussed in relation to: mortality; access to aid and rehabilitation resources; conditions at temporary shelters; violence against women; and impacts on health. This article argues that women confront human rights gaps during ‘normal’ times and that such pre-existing inequalities are simply reified and magnified in times of disaster. These contentions are upheld by providing a theoretical review of gender and disaster, a survey of actual accounts of gender and disaster across space, and by buttressing the literature with examples from post-tsunami Tamil Nadu. The aim of this article is to analyse salient gender-based issues in a specific post-disaster context and to add to the discourse on gender and disaster writ large. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A total of 1.7 million Virginians rely on private drinking water (PDW) systems and 1.3 million of those people do not know their water quality. Because most Virginians who use PDW do not know the quality of that water and since strontium poses a public health risk, this study investigates sources of strontium in PDW in Virginia and identifies the areas and populations most vulnerable. Physical factors such as rock type, rock age, and fertilizer use have been linked to elevated strontium concentrations in drinking water. Social factors such as poverty, poor diet, and adolescence also increase social vulnerability to health impacts of strontium. Using water quality data from the Virginia Household Water Quality Program (VAHWQP) and statistical and spatial analyses, physical vulnerability was found to be highest in the Ridge and Valley province of Virginia where agricultural land use and geologic formations with high strontium concentrations (e.g., limestone, dolomite, sandstone, shale) are the dominant aquifer rocks. In terms of social vulnerability, households with high levels of strontium are more likely than the average VAHWQP participant to live in a food desert. This study provides information to help 1.7 million residents of Virginia, as well as populations in neighboring states, understand their risk of exposure to strontium in PDW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides high-resolution modeling of daily water budget components at Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)-12 resolution for 50 watersheds of the South Atlantic Gulf (SAG) region in the southeastern U.S. (SEUS) by implementing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in the form of a near real-time, semi-automated framework. A near real-time hydrologic simulation framework is implemented with a lead time of nine months (March–December 2017) by integrating the calibrated SWAT model with National Centers for Environmental Prediction coupled forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) weather data to forecast daily water balance components. The modeling exercise is conducted as a precursor for various future hydrologic studies (retrospective or forecasting) for the region by providing a calibrated hydrological dataset at high spatial (HUC-12) and temporal (1-day) resolution. The models are calibrated (January 2003–December 2010) and validated (January 2011–December 2013) for each watershed using the observed streamflow data from 50 United States Geological Survey (USGS) gauging stations. The water balance analysis for the region shows that the implemented models satisfactorily represent the hydrology of the region across different sub-regions (Appalachian highlands, plains, and coastal wetlands) and seasons. While CFSv2-driven SWAT models are able to provide reasonable performance in near real-time and can be used for decision making in the region, caution is advised for using model outputs as the streamflow forecasts display significant deviation from observed streamflow for all watersheds for lead times greater than a month. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]