Chemical Contamination of Drinking Water in Resource-Constrained Settings: Global Prevalence and Piloted Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

Chemical contamination of drinking water (including salinity) puts more than one billion people at risk of adverse health effects globally. Resource-constrained communities are the most affected and face unique challenges that require innovative safe water solutions. This review focuses on arsenic, fluoride, nitrates, lead, chromium, total dissolved solids, emerging organic contaminants, and, to a lesser extent, manganese, cadmium, selenium, and uranium. It covers contaminant prevalence, major health effects, and treatment technologies or avoidance strategies that have been proven effective in realistic water matrices and conditions. The review covers the levelized costs of water for pilot- and full-scale systems most relevant to resource-constrained communities, with a focus on component costs including the costs of power systems, lifting water, waste management, and labor. These costs are not universally reported, but can be significant. The findings are analyzed and discussed in the context of providing sustainable safe water solutions in resource-constrained settings. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 45 is October 19, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Investigating use of chlorine dioxide for pre-treatment of raw water from polluted sources at Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Works, Harare, Zimbabwe

“…Poor institutional, regulatory and management aspects have also led to poor catchment management thus resulting in pollution (Afroz et al 2014). Polluted water sources pose a major challenge during potable water treatment (Dlamini et al 2016 including increased costs of treatment (Amrose et al 2020) and risks of water borne diseases due to poor drinking water quality (Praveen et al 2016).…”

Universal Access to Safe Drinking Water: Escaping the Traps of Non-Frugal Technologies

“…These include chemical (e.g., chlorination) [3], physical (e.g., filtration) [50,51], and thermal treatment methods (e.g., boiling, pasteurization) [29], and a combination thereof [40,52]. However, considering the increasing universal use of chemicals including those of emerging health concern (e.g., pharmaceuticals and personal care products), it has been recently demonstrated that contamination by synthetic chemicals is increasingly of worldwide concern [32,53,54]. This is in addition to well-known toxic geogenic contaminants such as radionuclides (e.g., U), arsenic, and fluoride, among others.…”

“…Consequently, decentralized safe drinking water systems should address both biological and chemical contamination [32,52,53]. Moreover, the quality of treated water should be assessed (or confirmed) using instrumental water analysis [54,[56][57][58]. This calls for a shift in the present paradigm in developing countries that places emphasis on the water supply (e.g., via drilling of boreholes) with limited consideration for the analytical testing and treatment of such water.…”

Preparedness Plan for the Water Supply Infrastructure during Water Terrorism—A Case Study from Irbid, Jordan

“…Chemical contamination of water is a substantial threat to human health and safety, and is expected to have impacts that are more significant in the upcoming decades. According to Amrose et al [22], the impacts of chemical contamination on humans may increase, mainly due to increasing industrialization and climate change. The most common chemical contaminants that affect the quality of water are the following:…”