How can the safety of drinking-water be monitored globally? What definitions would be meaningful and assist decision-makers in the process of improving the drinking-water situation in the world? What research and development efforts are needed to come up with a rapid, reliable and cost-effective way of measuring water quality indicators locally and reporting on them at the global level. Since the decision in 2000 to adopt a method based on nationally representative household surveys, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) has explored options to report on the safety of drinking-water supplies. In this connection, between 2002 and 2008 the rapid assessment of drinking-water quality (RADWQ) project was designed, implemented and documented in a number of pilot countries where the quality of drinking-water from improved sources was evaluated. [authors abstract of the project]
| Title | Rapid assessment of drinkingwater quality in the republic of Nicaragua : country report of the pilot project implementation in 2004-2005 |
| Publication Type | Book |
| Year of Publication | 2010 |
| Authors | J. Aldana, M |
| Pagination | xi, 763 p.; 16 fig.; 35 tab. |
| Date Published | 2010-01-01 |
| Publisher | World Health Organization (WHO) |
| Place Published | Geneva, Switzerland |
| ISSN Number | 9789241500586 |
| Keywords | drinking water, nicaragua, statistics, water quality, who/unicef joint monitoring programme |
| Abstract | During 2004 and 2005 the Republic of Nicaragua and five other countries participated in a World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) pilot project to test a rapid, low-cost, field-based technique for assessing water quality. The project was named the Rapid Assessment of Drinking-Water Quality (RADWQ) and its purpose was to develop a tool that would help the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) monitor global access to safe drinkingwater, as a means of assessing progress towards the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goal 7. The RADWQ methodology is based on the UNICEF Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys, which use cluster sampling across a country to select individual drinking-water sources for testing. The number and types of parameters used to test the drinking-water sources depend on the extent of the survey and on local potential health hazards. The output of a RADWQ survey is a snapshot of drinking-water quality for each improved water source tested.Using the RADWQ methodology, four teams of field personnel visited 1488 water supplies throughout Nicaragua over a period of seven weeks from 25 October to 10 December 2004. The samples were taken from four broad areas, geographically defined to reflect the water situation of the country as a whole: Pacific, Atlantic, Central North and Central South. The capital city of Managua is located in the Pacific broad area. Four types of technologies were examined: public piped water supplies; community water systems; boreholes/tubewells; and, protected wells. The water samples were analysed using portable field kits, and were tested for the following water quality parameters: thermotolerant coliforms, faecal streptococci, pH, turbidity, chlorine residuals, appearance, conductivity, arsenic, fluoride, nitrate and iron. For 10% of the water samples it was also analysed whether the water quality had deteriorated between the water source and the household. Sanitary risk inspections were carried out at each of the 1488 sites, using standardized questionnaires.[authors abstract] |
| Notes | With bibliography on p. 41 - 42 |
| Custom 1 | 827 |
