title: Water quality effects of intermittent water supply in Arraiján, Panama.
abstract: Intermittent drinking water supply is common in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world and can cause water quality to degrade in the distribution system. In this study, we characterized water quality in one study zone with continuous supply and three zones with intermittent supply in the drinking water distribution network in Arraiján, Panama. Low or zero pressures occurred in all zones, and negative pressures occurred in the continuous zone and two of the intermittent zones. Despite hydraulic conditions that created risks for backflow and contaminant intrusion, only four of 423 (0.9%) grab samples collected at random times were positive for total coliform bacteria and only one was positive for E. coli. Only nine of 496 (1.8%) samples had turbidity >1.0 NTU and all samples had ≥0.2 mg/L free chlorine residual. In contrast, water quality was often degraded during the first-flush period (when supply first returned after an outage). Still, routine and first-flush water quality under intermittent supply was much better in Arraiján than that reported in a previous study conducted in India. Better water quality in Arraiján could be due to better water quality leaving the treatment plant, shorter supply outages, higher supply pressures, a more consistent and higher chlorine residual, and fewer contaminant sources near pipes. The results illustrate that intermittent supply and its effects on water quality can vary greatly between and within distribution networks. The study also demonstrated that monitoring techniques designed specifically for intermittent supply, such as continuous pressure monitoring and sampling the first flush, can detect water quality threats and degradation that would not likely be detected with conventional monitoring.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1710, USA.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Erickson
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
authors.forename: Charlotte D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT-AIP), City of Knowledge, Panama.
authors.forename: Amador
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goodridge
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1710, USA. Electronic address: karanelson@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Kara L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D002713:Chlorine; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000382:microbiology; D004926:Escherichia coli; D014871:Water Microbiology; D060753:Water Quality; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D002713:Chlorine
keywords: Continuous monitoring; Distribution system; Drinking water quality; Intermittent supply