Blueprinting the FIETS dynamics of small-scale piped water supply for ensuring safe water quality in urbanizing settlements

To develop a series of blueprints for SPWS of the future for dynamic urbanizing settlements, where the microbial water quality is maintained from source to the consumer’s mouth.

Research Questions 

1. How can integrative blueprints be formulated for the dynamics of SWPS (<100 households), includingabstraction, treatment and piped supply, with a specific emphasis on the social/technical/natural context of urbanizing deltas (e.g., scale, belief systems, flood-prone, user density, migration)?
2. How can locally available materials and designs be utilized to prevent microbial re-contamination in pipelines and storage containers; and what are the crucial E.coli and bacteriophage inactivation pathways, including role of reactive oxygen species (ROS), sub-lethal injury, water quality matrix and post-implementation inhibitors?
3. How can active end-user participation (with MCP apps) be valorised to strengthen socially and technically sustainable SPWS adaptation in densely populated deltas (e.g., site-selection, end-user expectation, monitoring and malfunctioning)?

Methodology

1. Linking consistency in water supply and water quality to the technical state of water supply constructions and (health) perception of consumers using traditional methods (inspections, water sampling (incl. arsenic speciation), questionnaires) and innovative MCP methods (SP1). This source-to- mouth approach will be executed at existing larger piped schemes in Bangladesh of GIZ, DPHE and UNICEF (300-700 households).
2. Laboratory and field investigations of novel materials and designs (SP4) for their sensitivity to microbial (re-)contamination (E.coli and MS2 phages), with an emphasis on extreme flooding events, temperature shifts and unhygienic practices – using plate culturing, flowcytometry, ATP, PCR and pyrosequencing.
3. Formulate design, implementation and monitoring boundary conditions for SPWS blueprint for source- to-mouth in rapidly changing urbanizing conditions in the GBM Delta – and organize early piloting of blueprints components by partner organizations (Max Foundation, EPRC-UNICEF).