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Objective. Identify approaches to water safety and quality in documents describing school feeding programs in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Methods. Descriptive, cross-sectional, exploratory study of documents on school feeding in LAC countries and territories. A documentary analysis was carried out and four initial categories were determined: "water for consumption", "water for hygiene", "water for food preparation", and "local/family agriculture", according to the use of water in school feeding programs. Documents were identified in 2018 and 2019 on the official websites of LAC countries and territories, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Food Programme. Absolute and relative frequencies were obtained for quantitative data; thematic content analysis was applied to qualitative data. Results. Of the 114 documents analyzed, 29 were eligible. In the categories "water for consumption", "water for hygiene" and "water for food preparation", the only characteristic attributed to water was that it be potable. In the category "local/family farming", no approaches were found that addressed water for irrigation. Conclusion. The documents address water, but do not focus on its safety and quality. Governments and local authorities should review their documents and ensure that their approaches are mutually coherent and based on intersectoral support and dialogue to achieve the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article titled "Hydraulic Analysis and Design for the Conduction and Supply of Drinking Water in the El Manzano Community, Jericó de Desamparados" presents a project to solve the problems of drinking water supply in the El Manzano community. The project was developed jointly by the University of Costa Rica and Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA). The article describes the stages of the project, which include the recognition of the current water supply conditions, the determination of the planimetric profile of the area, the estimation of the future population, and the analysis of the proposed hydraulic design. Currently, the population of El Manzano does not have a water system that meets AyA standards, and it is projected that the population for the year 2050 will be 341 people. The hydraulic system will work through the force of gravity due to the topography of the terrain. [Extracted from the article]

Objective. To explore distributional inequality of key health outcomes as determined by access coverage to water and sanitation (WS) between countries in the Region of the Americas. Methods. An ecological study was designed to explore the magnitude and change-over-time of standard gap and gradient metrics of environmental inequalities in health at the country level in 1990 and 2010 among the 35 countries of the Americas. Access to drinking water and access to improved sanitation facilities were selected as equity stratifiers. Five dependent variables were: total and healthy life expectancies at birth, and infant, under-5, and maternal mortality. Results. Access to WS correlated with survival and mortality, and strong gradients were seen in both 1990 and 2010. Higher WS access corresponded to higher life expectancy and healthy life expectancy and lower infant, under-5, and maternal mortality risks. Burden of life lost was unequally distributed, steadily concentrated among the most environmentally disadvantaged, who carried up to twice the burden than they would if WS were fairly distributed. Population averages in life expectancy and specific mortality improved, but whereas absolute inequalities decreased, relative inequalities remained mostly invariant. Conclusions. Even with the Region on track to meet MDG 7 on water and sanitation, large environmental gradients and health inequities among countries remain hidden by Regional averages. As the post-2015 development agenda unfolds, policies and actions focused on health equity—mainly on the most socially and environmentally deprived—will be needed in order to secure the right for universal access to water and sanitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roads in Bogota, Colombia are plagued by both poor pavement conditions and constant precipitation. To tackle these issues, this paper quantitatively measures the effect of stripping and moisture on the bond between AC 60-70 and three aggregates (two sandstone and one limestone, given that they represent those most commonly employed in Bogota's pavements). The idea is to study the aggregate's adhesive and cohesive behavior via the BBS test and the Sessile Drop method. For the asphalt-aggregate bonds, contact angles, wettability and adhesive work under dry and wet conditions were determined. Results identify sandstone aggregate as preferable, especially in terms of moisture damage resistance. Furthermore, this study concludes that the aggregates studied are highly susceptible to water damage, with a Humidity Damage Index less than 0.5. As a result, asphalt mixtures should rely on a modifier to mitigate moisture damage in asphalt mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the notion of cities "of water" created by poet Raúl Zurita in the book "Las ciudades de agua" in which urban landscapes are poeticized in a completely original manner.

Objective. To study the association between water and sanitation coverage and epidemiological indicators in Latin America, using secondary data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for the period of 2005 to 2010.Methods. An ecological study was carried out including data from 21 Latin American countries, with a total estimated population of 596 million. The following variables were analyzed: infant mortality in children under 1 year in 2008, mortality in children under 5 years in 2008, and mortality from acute diarrheal diseases in children under 5 years in 2008. These indicators were analyzed by means of the ``one-on-one''correlation with risk factors in five categories (demographic, socioeconomic, child health, public spending on health care, health care, and sanitation coverage).Results. The average values for the region were 18.2 deaths per 1 000 live births in children under 1 year of age, 23.5 deaths per 1 000 live births for children under5 years, and 5.8% mortality for acute diarrheal diseases in children under 5 years.Higher water and sanitation coverage was linked with lower mortality in children under 1 and under 5 years of age. Higher mortality from acute diarrheal diseases in children under 5 years was associated with higher annual population growth.Conclusions. The improvement of public health in Latin America depends on the expansion of access to public water and sanitation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple procedure and corresponding soil corer to determine volumetric soil water content (VSWC) by weight, directly in the field, is described. VSWC is determined by sampling and weighing an undisturbed soil core of known volume, then comparing this weight to that of a similar core of known moisture content, which needs to be pre-established for the same field and soil depth as a reference. Two types of reference cores, and thus applications, are suggested: a) dry weight or absolute reference, established thermogravimetrically, the use of which allows to know by difference in weight the absolute VSWC value of a sample; and, b) relative references, which require to pre-establish the weight of reference cores at chosen levels of soil moisture, e.g. field capacity or a "need-to-irrigate" low level, allowing to determine by weight the difference in VSWC between a sample and that of the reference. Using this procedure and a locally built steel corer containing a 0.5 m deep soil core with a volume of 0.001 m3, a sizable sample that reduces variability, VSWC values determined for 3 tropical soils in Costa Rica were not significantly different from, and were significantly correlated to, standard thermogravimetric determinations of soil moisture converted to VSWC using bulk density, thus contributing to validate the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using gamma spectroscopy and Latin Americastandard protocols, the activity in Bq kg-1 of food products and water was measured, both products were acquired directly in supermarkets. The descendents of uranium and thorium, as well as anthropogenic isotopes, were not found. K 40 was the principal isotope present in the food samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]