Water Safety Plan: conceptual model for monitoring of water contamination risks in rural communties

ABSTRACT

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) includes, among other steps, the identification and monitoring of dangerous events can guarantee water quality to consumers. Rurality covers about 15% of the Brazilian population and technical support is insufficient to assist local demands. In this context, the main objective was to develop a conceptual WSP model for monitoring water contamination risks in the rural area, contemplating events from water catchment to water distribution in rural communities. The methodology consisted of the characterization of dangerous events, conception of the computational model, specialists consultation, and model calibration and application in rural properties. Among the results, there is a software elaborated in Python containing 109 events aimed at rural supply. The program analyzed the precariousness around the water catchment and the clean conditions of the studied properties. These results indicated the highest risks, for the most part, come from the use of cesspool, irregular disposal of solid waste, domestic sewage discharge, and animal beeding nearby water catchment. There is no software available to measure water supply risks in rural areas and the proposed model can be used for environmental health evaluatiation in the national context. In this way, the software can support water resource monitoring and expands the manageability in the sector.

Keywords:
water supply; risk management; water safety; water catchment