Lack of Community Participation in Drinking Water Supply Project and its Impact on Health and Services Provided to Flood Affected People

Pakistan experienced extraordinary rainfall in mid-July 2010, which continued until September 2010. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) the rains/floods have affected over 20 million people. The selected aid organization for study which has worked in response to disaster has not consulted community due to approach modification which leads to create negative impacts on inhabitants of water facilities provided in reconstruction phase by the organization. The main focus for this study was on the health and services aspects of the facilities and how the lack of community participation played a role in them. In order to achieve this, interviews were carried out with village residents as well as relevant organization. Reports, strategy and policy documents have also provided important and relevant information. The main finding of the study was that inappropriate facilities provision by non government organization is result of imprecise quick response for implementation of project. Keywords: Impact, drinking water, health, affected peopl

Bimetallic Bi/Cu0-catalyzed persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes towards clofibric acid degradation in wastewater

Clofibric acid (CFA), an important blood-lipid regulatory drug is an emerging organic pollutant and widely reported in water resources. A novel bimetallic, bismuth/zero valent cupper (Bi/Cu0) catalyst was prepared which showed better physiological, structural, and catalytic properties than Cu0. The Bi/Cu0 effectively catalyzed persulfate (S2O82−) and caused 85% degradation of CFA. The Bi coupling improved reusability and stability of Cu0. The use of alcoholic and anionic radical scavengers and analyzing change in [S2O82−]0 proved that Bi/Cu0/S2O82− yield hydroxyl radicals (●OH) and sulfate radicals (SO4●–). The ●OH and SO4●– showed faster reaction with CFA, i.e., 4.65 × 109 and 3.82 × 109 M−1 s−1 and degraded CFA into four degradation products. Under optimal conditions of [Bi/Cu0]0 = 1.0 g/L and [S2O82−]0 = 40 mg/L, 99.5% degradation of the 10 mg/L of CFA was achieved at 65 min. Temperature showed promising effects on the removal of CFA by Bi/Cu0/S2O82− and caused 98% removal at 323 K than 75% at 298 K at 32 min. The temperature effects were used to calculate activation energy, enthalpy, and rate constant of CFA degradation. The Bi/Cu0/S2O82− showed effective removal of CFA in real water samples also. The ecotoxicity study confirmed non-toxic product formation which suggests high capability of the proposed technology in the treatment of CFA