Project Page Views: [ 675 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | Enhancing Human Health through improved Water Quality. |
| Research Area | Water |
| Project Acronym | |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Martin Cormican |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 53.27905, -9.05794 |
| Lead Funding Entity | Environmental Protection Agency |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 01/02/2006 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 01/02/2011 |
| Project Website (if any) | |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | Water quality; Pathogens; Human health; Aquifiers |
| Project Abstract | Sustainable access to safe drinking water: is universally recognised as a key issue in human health and development. Treatment of water intended for human consumption to eliminate recognised infectious and toxic contaminants plays a central role in ensuring access to safe drinking water but it is not sufficient to rely only on conventional treatment. It is important to protect water sources against bacterial contamination and to consider also the adverse health impacts of contamination of water with antimicrobial substances and non-bacterial pathogens such as protozoans. This project will assess temporal variation in the occurrence of pathogens in aquifers across a vulnerability gradient. It will develop molecular biology techniques to discriminate between human and animal sources of faecal contamination in water sources to increase insight into human/animal sources of faecal contamination. The project will examine the potential for effluent and water to contribute to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance and examine the relevance of spatially-related data including water supply to the occurrence of cryptosporidiosis in the population. The project will also develop a Microbial Risk Assessment (MRA) model for catchment waters which can be used both to identify when potable water is at high risk of being contaminated. |