Global Drinking Water Management and Conservation

This book discusses different drinking water treatment technologies and what contaminants each treatment method can remove, and at what costs. The production of drinking water requires adequate management. This book attempts to fill the existing knowlegde gap about (a) water treatment technologies and their costs, (b) risk assessment methods, (c) adverse health effects of chemical contaminants, (d) management protocols, and varying regulatory practices in different jurisdictions, and what successes are possible even with small financial outlays. Addressing water consulting engineers, politicians, water managers, ecosystem and environmental activists, and water policy researchers, and being clearly structured through a division in four parts, this book considers theoretical aspects, technologies, chemical contaminants and their possible elimination, and illustrates all aspects in selected international case studies.

Source-water protection, water treatment technology, and the water distribution network are critically reviewed and discussed. The book suggests improvements for the management of risks and financial viability of the treatment infrastructure, as well as ways toward an optimal management of the distribution network through the risk-based management of all infrastructure assets.

Fills knowledge gaps about water treatment technologies and their costs, risk assessment methods, adverse health effects of chemical contamination, and management protocols

From the content: Part I Water Ecology And Ecosystem Integrity: Introduction to Drinking Water Management.- Water in a Global Context.- What this Book is about.- Waterborne Disease Outbreaks and the Multi-Barrier Approach to Protecting Drinking Water.- Introduction.- Protozoa.-Bacteria.- Lessons from Disease Outbreaks.- Pricniples of Watershed Management.- Conclusion.- Part II Drinking Water Treatment Technology and Pricing.- Water Treatment Technologies and Their Costs.- Six Classes of Water Treatment Technologies.- Projected Costs: Ultra Violet, Micro Filtration - Ultra Filtration, High Rate Treatment and Clarification, and Ozonation.- Class 5 Treatment Technologies.- Reverse Osmosis and Nano-Filtration (Classe 6).- Examples of Actual Costs of a Few Existing Plants.- Summing up and Tentative Conclusions.- Reverse Osmosis and other Treatment Technologies.- Water Desalination Technology in Application.- Desalination Processes.- Relative Costs of Desalination Technologies.- The Theory of Water and Utility Pricing.- The Dupuit-Hotelling Theory of Marginal Cost Pricing.- Private versus Public Production.-Absolute Efficiency Advantage.-Second Best (Ramsey) Pricing.- Econometric Estimation of Shadow Ramsey Pricing.- Water Pricing Practice in Developed Countries.-Part Three: Incorporating Risk In Decision-Making.- Risk Assessment for Safe Potable Water Supplies.- Water Source Protection.- Risk Management Methods for Producing Potable Water Supplies.- Case Studies of Risk Assessment.- Introduction to Water Infrastructure Asset Management.- Incorporating Risk in Water Infrastructure Management.- Risk Assessment.- Decision Support System (DSS) Incorporating Risk.- Computing a Model for Asset Management with Risk.- Towards solving the DSS.- Application of Risk into the DSS.- Case Studies from British Columbia.- Threats to Human Health: use of Chlorine, an Obsolete Treatment Technology.- Long Term Health Effects of Using Chlorine.- Management Practices in the Developed Countries.- Conclusion.- Public Health and Lead Sampling Protocols for Drinking Water: A Critical Review.