Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK.
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA E-mail:
J Water Health. 2014 Jun;12(2):343-7. doi: 10.2166/wh.2013.118.
Packaged water treatment schemes represent a growing model for providing safer water in low-income settings, yet post-distribution recontamination of treated water may limit this approach. This study evaluates drinking water quality and household water handling practices in a floating village in Tonlé Sap Lake, Cambodia, through a pilot cross-sectional study of 108 households, approximately half of which used packaged water as the main household drinking water source. We hypothesized that households purchasing drinking water from local packaged water treatment plants would have microbiologically improved drinking water at the point of consumption. We found no meaningful difference in microbiological drinking water quality between households using packaged, treated water and those collecting water from other sources, including untreated surface water, however. Households' water storage and handling practices and home hygiene may have contributed to recontamination of drinking water. Further measures to protect water quality at the point-of-use may be required even if water is treated and packaged in narrow-mouthed containers.
包装水处理方案代表了为低收入环境提供更安全用水的一种不断发展的模式，但处理水的分配后再污染可能会限制这种方法。本研究通过对柬埔寨洞里萨湖浮村的 108 户家庭进行试点横断面研究，评估了饮用水水质和家庭用水处理方法，其中约一半家庭将包装水作为主要家庭饮用水源。我们假设从当地包装水水厂购买饮用水的家庭在消费点的饮用水的微生物质量会得到改善。然而，我们发现，使用包装处理水的家庭和从其他来源（包括未经处理的地表水）收集水的家庭之间，在微生物饮用水质量方面没有显著差异。家庭的储水和处理方法以及家庭卫生可能导致饮用水的再污染。即使水经过处理并装在窄口容器中，在使用点保护水质可能仍需要进一步措施。
