An Educational Intervention in 7 very small potable water systems to improve community health and operational capacity: value of sampling and appropriate technology

An Educational Intervention in 7 very small potable water systems to improve community health and operational capacity: value of sampling and appropriate technology

An educational intervention in 7 very small potable water systems is being conducted in Puerto Rico to assess the efficacy of a capacity development strategy to improve community health by promoting understanding of operational and water quality data. An innovative prototype of a slow sand filter was installed in two of the systems and a conventional package plant in the third with the help of the systems’ users. Results of the first 2 phases of the study will be presented where baseline water quality and health data was developed during the pre-intervention. The rate of diarrheal illness was determined by sampling the population for waterborne pathogens and the exposure to different pathogens was assayed by immuno-responses using saliva. Water quality of the source and distributed water was determined during the pre-intervention and construction phases. Microbial indicator and pathogenic species data (Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Salmonella, and Shiga toxin) was collected during both phases. The overall population rate of diarrheal illness was 21% and presence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia was determined to range from 11% to 83% of the samples. Finally, presence of Shiga toxin encoding genes in 52% of the samples was found. A significant reduction in positive samples from the distributed water was observed in the filtered systems. The authors will present all facets of the intervention including the construction of slow sand filter prototype.