Innovation lab seeks breakthroughs to ensure safe water

Warnings from municipalities around the world to “boil water before using” are not uncommon, especially as water distribution systems get older. The farther away from the water source one is, the greater the risk. In some countries, safe water is collected from community sources only to become unfit for drinking during transport to the home, or is delivered by to a building where it is contaminated because of inadequate internal plumbing. That’s why the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) is working with researchers at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health to find ways to reduce the potential for recontamination.

 

IAPMO supports an “innovation lab” through the School, called “The Last Mile of Safe Drinking Water Delivery.” The School’s innovation labs bring together interdisciplinary experts to approach problems from various perspectives and accelerate solutions to some of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Jamie Bartram, PhD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering and director of The Water Institute at UNC, leads the innovation lab.

 

“The idea is to better understand how, why and when drinking water gets contaminated during transport from a nearby source of safe water to the point of use,” Bartram said. “There are reasons the water lines get contaminated – from broken pipes to ‘biofilm’ (bacterial) buildup or even a loss of pressure. This innovation lab will concentrate on finding ways to reduce recontamination through policy, technology, education, codes and regulation.”

 

IAPMO officials visited the School on March 23 to commission the lab. GP Russ Chaney, IAPMO’s chief executive officer, told Dean Barbara K. Rimer that his organization is impressed with the way the School focuses attention and resources on global water and sanitation issues, despite difficult economic times. “What you are doing has put UNC a couple of steps ahead of any other university in the world in our future-oriented approach to water, health and development,” he said. “We’re proud to partner with you.”

 

Chaney and other IAPMO officials talked to Bartram and his team at UNC about the problem of water contamination throughout the United States and world.

 

“Even though the U.S. has some of the safest drinking water in the world, contamination often does occur after treatment and in the ‘last mile’ of delivery,” Chaney said. “Causes include a loss of pressure in the distribution system that can result in pollutants entering the system, a cross- connection through which the potable water system is inadvertently connected to a polluted source of water and, perhaps most common, a structural failure in the distribution pipes or water mains.”

 

“With our aging infrastructure, this problem is just going to get more and more common,” Bartram said. “We need to find ways to help government and water officials set policies and invest resources that will make the greatest amount of difference in keeping water safe. What we expect to learn and develop through this lab will have a lasting effect on water systems in North Carolina and throughout the developed world, but should also set precedents for developing countries, as well.”

 

In addition to financial support, IAPMO will lend the services of Dr. Stu Asay, one of the world’s foremost experts on plumbing systems and the protection of potable water from contamination sources. Dr. Asay will work closely with Dr. Bartram’s team throughout the Last Mile research program.

 

For more information on The Water Institute at UNC, visit: www.waterinstitute.unc.edu.

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.