Preplanned Studies: Sanitary Evaluation of Rural Water Supply Projects — China, 2020

The National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring System has shown that the qualified rate of drinking water quality in rural areas has increased but is still lower than that of urban areas. Overall, China’s rural water supply has been improving, but there are still deficiencies.

The Technical Specification for Water Supply Projects in Towns and Villages issued in 2019 suggests that drinking water should be disinfected. Since this study evaluated the whole water treatment process at each WaSPs, we observed that while most WaSPs used a water treatment procedure, more than 10% of WaSPs’ water supply with <3,000 m³/d had no disinfection procedures and were used improperly. The disinfection procedure rate of 403 WaSPs in 6 PLADs of China in 2015 was found to be 39.5% (4). This may be the result of a higher proportion of small-scale WaSPs investigated in 2015 and therefore disinfection was given more attention. Water disinfection is efficient at inactivating pathogens (5). For drinking water safety, the WaSPs should be equipped with disinfection facilities and use disinfectants accurately.

In this study, we found that both large and small WaSPs have problems with high rates of pipeline leakage. The Water Pollution Control Action Plan issued in 2013 stated that the leakage rate in the public water supply network should be limited to 12% by 2017 and 10% by 2020. About two-fifths WaSPs do not meet this requirement. The high leakage rate increases the risk of microbial and chemical re-contamination and causes water resource waste and economic losses for water supply enterprises. The higher leakage rate could be attributed to aging pipes and gate valves, poor quality of pipes, unstable water pressure, or other reasons. The pipe leaks were also related to the year last serviced. The WaSPs with water supply ≥3,000 m³/d had a higher ratio of leakage, which may be related to many of their pipelines running longer in this study. The reasons for the high leakage rate should be uncovered quickly and targeted measures such as pipeline renovation and replacement or water supply pressure control should be taken according to the actual situation.

Operations and Maintenance management remains a long-standing problem, as the studies of water safety plans implemented in 311 water systems of China from 2004 to 2018 revealed the prevalence of insufficient overall management capacity in rural WaSPs (6). O&M is fundamental to WaSPs because failure to adequately address O&M can result in process failures, contamination events, water-borne diseases, and economic losses (7). Nearly half WaSPs cannot carry out the necessary water quality index assessments at the frequency required. The regular monitorings by the WaSPs themselves are able to discover problems quickly. The detection and frequency of index assessments can be increased according to raw water quality, water treatment process, water supply scale, etc. When the results do not meet the standards, the risks should be quickly identified and countermeasures should be enacted. Emergency plans should be launched when necessary.

The Administrative Measures for Sanitary Evaluation of Rural Drinking Water Safety Projects (Trial) issued in 2008 proposed sanitary evaluations should be carried out in rural WaSPs with water supply ≥3,000 m³/d to ensure safe water supply. In addition, the document suggested that SERWaSP results were one of the important conditions for the water supply permissions in rural WaSPs. However, many of the WaSPs with water supply ≥3,000 m³/d had not carried out SERWaSPs before they were put to use. The results showed WaSPs with a water supply <3,000 m³/d had more problems during the process of SERWaSP, such as water source protection, disinfection procedures, water quality, and sanitary management. This study’s findings point out that the laws and regulations on sanitary evaluation for centralized rural supply should be reinforced. Rural WaSPs covering both large and small, newly constructed, or reconstructed must pass SERWaSP before supplying water. WaSPs in use shall also be subjected to the sanitary evaluation, supervision, and inspection.

However, this study was subject to some limitations. First, the real-world WaSP conditions may be more challenging considering that more WaSPs with water purification treatment were selected in this study. Second, some water quality reports used to carry out SERWaSPs were from months ago, and the water quality might have changed. Opinions on comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas issued in 2021 call for the implementation of projects to ensure rural water supply and to strengthen the construction and protection of water sources such as small and medium-sized reservoirs (8). The implementation of SERWaSPs is a better choice for water supply safety, which can strengthen the sanitary management of the WaSP in O&M and analyze the water quality safety risks that should be addressed in priority order. The risk management tool, called Water Safety Plans (WSPs) proposed by the WHO, contributes to improving O&M by supporting the systematic assessment, prioritization, and management of risks from catchment to consumer, which might also be applied in rural WaSPs (6,9). Lastly, a multi-department management mechanism should be operated to promote the development of SERWaSPs and better serve the drinking water safety of rural residents.

No conflicts of interest reported.

Project teams from participating provincial CDCs, county/district-level CDCs, and local rural water supply staff.