Suchergebnisse

The protection of drinking water sources continues to gain momentum in First Nation communities on the Canadian Prairie. Through the identification of potential threats to drinking water sources communities are taking action to mitigate those threats. This article explores the extent to which climate change has been taken into consideration in recent source water protection planning community exercises. In addition, this article describes how source water protection planning has potential to enhance community adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on source water and drinking water systems. Results are based on six case studies from Alberta and Saskatchewan.

AbstractThis paper discusses Government policy to August 1989 on the use of protection zones to protect UK water sources from pollution by nitrate. It outlines the use of the powers in the Water Act 1989 to declare Nitrate Sensitive Areas, and the procedures that would be followed in declaring such zones. The circumstances are outlined in which compensation would be paid in Nitrate Sensitive Areas and the reasons for departing from the 'polluter pays' principle. UK policy is related to the proposed European Community Directive on the control of nitrate, and the similarities between the two approaches are illustrated.

Providing good and safe drinking-water is world-wide considered to be a fundamental political issue for public health protection, and must be the primary objective of water supply systems. Drinking-water quality control has currently been based on detection of pathogens and toxic concentrations of chemicals by means of monitoring programs and compliance with national or international guidelines and standards, relying mainly on indicator bacteria and chemicals maximum concentration levels. However, this methodology is often slow, complex and costly. Even for sophisticated and well-operated systems these monitoring schemes have proved to be inefficient in preventing waterborne diseases like, for instance, Giardia or Cryptosporidium outbreaks. From this evidence we can conclude that end-product testing is a reactive rather than preventive way to demonstrate confidence in good and safe drinking-water. This justifies the need for the formulation of a new approach in drinking-water quality control based on understanding of system vulnerability for contamination and on preventive means and actions necessary to guarantee the safety of the water supplied to the consumer. Water safety plan is a concept for risk assessment and risk management throughout the water cycle from the catchments to the point of consumption. This approach includes the identification of the hazards and introduction of control points that serve to minimize these potential hazards, providing for more effective control of drinking-water quality. This paper presents an overview of the first two years experience in developing and implementing a water safety plan in a Portuguese multimunicipal water company. Since key personnel had contributed to the assessment of hazards and evaluation of corrective actions for control points, a greater understanding of water quality control and improvements on technical operation and performance have been registered, demonstrating good value for the ...

The management structures put in place for the protection of drinking water sources are multifaceted and include a range of government agencies, landholders and regulatory agencies. While source protection is widely practiced in the water industry, there is limited research on underlying constructs that support successful outcomes in drinking water source protection (DWSP) programs. This study builds on current research by further investigating the following proposed critical success factors (CSFs) for source protection: CSF1: policy and government agency support of source protection ; CSF2: catchment condition information and risk monitoring ; CSF3: support of operational field activities ; and CSF4: response to water quality threats. This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to confirm the associations amongst the four CSFs. The results show that policy and government agency support for DWSP has a significant influence over how water service providers (WSPs) plan operational activities for risk management. This emphasizes the importance of the role policy and government agencies have in supporting DWSP. The relationships between the CSFs, which typically fall under the responsibility of WSPs, show that information on catchment condition influences operational activities for risk management, and these mediate the influence over response to water quality threats. The response to threats also showed a strong relationship with the function of monitoring catchment risk. The resulting SEM framework provides new insights into the underlying structures that influence outcomes in catchment management and source protection.

Introduction to water resources planning -- Planning policies -- Legal issues with water supplies -- Water resources alternatives -- Water demand forecasting -- Water quality -- Source water protection -- Water supply assessments -- Alternatives analysis -- Integrated water management plan