Author : Rasha El Gohary

Safe, clean drinking water and sanitation are a human right. Improved drinking water for human consumption should be free from pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites and chemical contaminants to meet biological, physical and chemical criteria. However, inadequate sanitation, waste treatment and disposal are responsible for pollution of water resources. The large proportion of the population in developing countries, especially in villages where there is no safe drinking water supply and suffering from water-borne diseases, especially diarrheal diseases. Egypt has made significant progress in terms of direct access to safe drinking water at the household level (92.4%) and basic sanitation (92.9%). Unfortunately, there are many rural villages in Egypt that are still dependent on water delivery and waste disposal systems are outdated, unhealthy and therefore unsafe, and as a result, the situation with regard to safe drinking water. The objective of the research is to assess the water supply especially by hand pump system in rural communities within the Nile Delta region in order to protect the water quality at the hand pump. Also highlights the areas that have a problems related to the bad sanitary conditions around hand pumps used for drinking purposes in urban and rural areas through monitoring the deep and shallow wells near to sanitation systems may affect by it . The selected governorates are: (El Sharkya – El Menofya and El Gharbya). Laboratory analytical procedures will include chemical, biological, and microbiological, these analyses will carried out on a number of up-to-date and fully automated analytical instruments that are capable of handling large number of environmental parameters. A socio economic survey will implement from the three governorates will study by Meeting s (local community, students, women, and men), Formulation of an action group, and Questionnaire-based analyses. It concluded that rural communities within the selected pilot areas provided with an environmentally safe, socially accepted, and sustainable water supply source through shallow ground water hand pumps. In addition, public awareness within the pilot areas rural communities improved regarding the environmental aspects and safety protection measures for the hand pumps installed on the top of shallow groundwater wells.

Keywords: Water and Health, Water Borne-Diseases, Hand Pump in Egyptian Rural Areas, Safe Drinking Water Supply system.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.5 (Sept/Oct 2017)