Microcystins in water containers used in the home: A review of their potential health effects.

Cyanobacteria produce toxins that are harmful to humans. They are found mostly in surface water, which is the main water source for drinking water before treatment. However, most of the water treatment plants are inadequate to treat toxins such as microcystins in raw water sources from contaminated surface water that has blooming and/or decaying cyanobacteria. Microcystins are harmful toxins produced by cyanobacteria that cause both acute and chronic health problems in humans. However, little is known about microcystins in water containers at the household level. This article therefore focuses on a review of the effects of microcystins in drinking water containers at the household level, including types of microcystins, their health effects, and cases reported in both animals and humans. Therefore, there is a need to develop the water quality management for cyanobacteria toxins, particularly microcystins in household containers.

A Prototype for an Intelligent Water Management System for Household Use.

Water scarcity is becoming an issue of more significant concern with a major impact on global sustainability. For it, new measures and approaches are urgently needed. Digital technologies and tools can play an essential role in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of current water management approaches. Therefore, a solution is proposed and validated, given the limited presence of models or technological architectures in the literature to support intelligent water management systems for domestic use. It is based on a layered architecture, fully designed to meet the needs of households and to do so through the adoption of technologies such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing. By developing a prototype and using it as a use case for testing purposes, we have concluded the positive impact of using such a solution. Considering this is a first contribution to overcome the problem, some issues will be addressed in a future work, namely, data and device security and energy and traffic optimisation issues, among several others.

Household safe water management in Kisii County, Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: Contaminated drinking water can lead to the risk of intestinal and other infectious diseases that lead to high morbidity. Therefore, determining household safe water management practices will benefit billions of people by ensuring there is no recontamination. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was used and a sample of 346 households was selected through systematic random sampling. A questionnaire was then used which was based on the core questions on drinking water and sanitation for household surveys and descriptive analyses were performed for the collected data using SPSS. RESULTS: Springs were predominantly used as the main source of water (97 %). Approximately, over half (58 %) of the sampled households never treated their drinking water to ensure that it was safe for drinking. Mostly (56 %), the households used jerricans for the storage of water with a majority of the households (95 %) covering their containers which were elevated from the reach of children in 52 % of the households. CONCLUSIONS: The risks included lack of water treatment, not covering the water container, risk of permitting dipping for those containers, lacking narrow neck and the risk of container being accessible to children. Basic treatment of the water at the household level by use of chemicals, filtration and boiling may have a great impact on the drinking water quality and health of the inhabitants of Kisii County. Also, creation of awareness on the possibilities of spring water being contaminated should be carried because of the assumption that spring water is safe and does not need to be treated.