This paper describes the pro-active role of rural communities in negotiating livelihood and sustenance through the improvement of some of their local water sources. It discusses the strategies put in place to ensure the availability of water, one of the worlds scarcest natural resources. Despite some external assistance, local communities are increasingly shouldering the responsibility of ensuring the availability of water through self-reliant efforts. These attempts are being undermined by a high incidence of waterborne and water-related diseases, which are impacting on health, and hygiene and other health care delivery systems. The management of potable water is proving to be a herculean task for most communities after the departure of funding partners. To guarantee the proper maintenance of pipe borne water schemes, communities are rethinking their strategies as they grapple with difficulties to put in place viable techniques for sustainability of water supply schemes.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue. 相似文献
Environmental sanitation programmes are vital for tackling environmental-related disease and ensuring human dignity in emergency situations. If they are to have maximum impact they must be planned in a rapid but systematic manner. An appropriate planning process comprises five key stages: rapid assessment and priority setting; outline programme design; immediate action; detailed programme design; and implementation. The assessment should be based on carefully selected data, which are analysed via comparison with suitable minimum objectives. How the intervention should be prioritised is determined through objective ranking of different environmental sanitation sector needs. Next, a programme design outline is produced to identify immediate and longer-term intervention activities and to guarantee that apposite resources are made available. Immediate action is taken to meet acute emergency needs while the detailed programme design takes shape. This entails in-depth consultation with the affected community and comprehensive planning of activities and resource requirements. Implementation can then begin, which should involve pertinent management and monitoring strategies. 相似文献
PROBLEM: After decreasing to a historic low in 1997, motorcycle crash-related fatalities are increasing. Although causes remain unclear, motorcycle rider education and licensing play key roles in reducing motorcycle crashes and injuries. Yet, little is known about what constitutes effective rider training and licensing. This study develops a model of best practices in motorcycle rider education and licensing and combines primary and secondary data to identify states that most closely adhere to this model. Evidence on the validity of the model is also examined. METHOD: States were rated along three areas of best practices: (a) program administration; (b) rider education; and (c) licensing based on 2001 data collected for a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)-sponsored study. RESULTS: Results indicate wide variation in states' adherence to best practices; several states meet most, others very few. When the areas of best practices are considered separately, a state tends to behave similarly on all three. Initial evidence supports the validity of the model, with high best practices states having the lowest rates of motorcycle fatalities. IMPACT ON TRAFFIC SAFETY: As motorcycle-related crashes increase and state and federal support for rider education programs diminishes, it is critical that states identify deficiencies in their program and learn from successful states about efficient, cost-effective strategies for increasing best practices in motorcycle rider education and licensing. 相似文献
Diffuse pollution by pesticide applied in rural catchments may contribute to alter water quality. Besides actions relative to the way the substances are introduced into the environment, it is also possible to limit the contamination by interfering on their transfer pathways from fields to the main river network. Especially, interface areas such as buffer strips or small ditches may play a major part in pesticide diffuse pollution decrease. In ditches a great variety of materials may act as sorbents for organic contaminants: grass, leaves, wood debris or sediments. In this study, laboratory experiments were designed to determine sorption characteristics for three herbicides with different physicochemical properties on sediment and leaves in decay commonly found in agricultural ditches. Sorption capacities were assessed for the herbicides isoproturon, diuron and diflufenican.
Experimental design was carried out to investigate the effects of five parameters on herbicide sorption on sediment and dead leaves. These parameters have been chosen according to parallel field experiment needs. Thus, the influence of initial sorbent moisture, herbicide form, i.e. active substance or commercial formulation, water quality (tap or natural ditch water), bromide ions (used as conservative tracers) and solid/liquid ratio have been tested. Within the parameters investigated, pesticide formulation and solid/liquid ratio were the most important parameters affecting pesticide sorption on both ditch materials. 相似文献
ABSTRACT: In 1983, the City of Indianapolis, Indiana, completed construction of advanced wastewater treatment (AWT) systems to enlarge and upgrade its existing Belmont Road and South port Road secondary treatment plants. A nonparametric statistical procedure, a modified form of the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney rank-sum test, was used to test for trends in water quality at two upstream and two downstream sites on White River and at the two treatment plants. Results comparing the pre- (1978–1980) and post- (1983–1986) AWT periods show statistically significant improvements in the quality of the treated effluent and of the White River downstream from the plants. Water quality at sites upstream from the city was relatively constant during the period of study. Total ammonia (as N) decreased 14.6 mg/L and BOD5 (five-day biochemical oxygen demand) decreased 10 to 19 mg/L in the two effluents. Total ammonia in the river downstream from the plants decreased 0.8 to 1.9 mg/L and BOD5 decreased 2.3 to 2.5 mg/L. Nitrate (as N) increased 14.5 mg/L in the plant effluents and 2.0 to 2.4 mg/L in the river because of in-plant nitrification. Dissolved oxygen concentration in the river increased about 3 mg/L because of reduced oxygen demand for nitrification and biochemical oxidation processes. 相似文献