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Biomedical subjects

D A Okun

Publications and source records attributed to D A Okun.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Water reuse introduces the need to integrate both water supply and wastewater management at local and regulatory levels.

Growing population and increasing urbanization is resulting in shortages of water supply for communities even in water-rich areas of the world. An approach to addressing this problem has been the introduction of wastewater reclamation and reuse for nonpotable purposes through dual distribution systems in municipalities in the United States on a significant scale in the 1970s and more recently in Japan and Australia. Many hundreds of communities, some very small and others very large, have adopted dual systems to add to their water resources and to reduce the burden of water pollution. Two issues deserve attention. The first is that the provision of water supply and its regulation by government is generally entirely separated from the provision of sewerage and wastewater treatment, so that the management of a reclaimed water service requires new arrangements both on the part of communities and of the government agencies that are concerned with the oversight of water supply and pollution control. The second issue is that the availability of new technology for treating waters drawn from polluted sources has led to proposals for purposefully using reclaimed water for potable purposes. The integration of water supply and wastewater disposal functions in professional organizations, such as IWA, is a useful step towards integrating water management in practice.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed2000

Water reclamation and unrestricted nonpotable reuse: a new tool in urban water management.

Growing urbanization accompanying growing population is increasing the demand for water supply in communities throughout the world. Water resources for many cities are already proving inadequate. Additional water resources are inherently more costly and are often not available because other communities and/or land owners have the water rights. Although conservation, particularly through demand management, may delay the need for additional sources for a short period, the need is inevitable. One approach that has been found to provide substantial additional water for communities is the reclamation of wastewaters produced by the communities themselves for unrestricted nonpotable purposes, such as for landscape and market crop irrigation, industry, cooling towers, air conditioning, toilet flushing, construction, vehicle washing, and environmental enhancement. This is done by providing dual distribution systems. Nonpotable reuse is already widely practiced despite the fact that the reclaimed water distribution systems needed to be installed in existing communities. Inasmuch as additional water is needed for growing populations, the costs would be substantially reduced if the two systems were to be built at the same time in the newly developing areas. Reuse of reclaimed water for potable purposes may be feasible, but it imposes added public health risks that need to be accepted only as a last resort.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1988

The value of water supply and sanitation in development: an assessment.

The attractiveness of oral rehydration therapy (ORT), a new and simple ministration that averts many child deaths from diarrhea among children, is diverting attention among donor agencies from the importance of water supply and sanitation (WS&S) in developing nations. The principal factor that led to the adoption of ORT is its apparent low cost per diarrheal death averted in children when compared with WS&S. However, WS&S provides many more benefits that are essential to sustaining the lives saved by ORT and vital to maintaining and enhancing the lives of adults and children. Among many other benefits WS&S prevents spread of the causes of diarrhea, controls many other water- and sanitation-related diseases, releases women from the heavy and time-consuming burden of carrying water from distant sources, and improves the quality of life in the community. Cost comparisons between WS&S and ORT are misleading. WS&S is a long-term investment in preventive health while ORT is a response to an immediate life-threatening situation. WS&S interventions eliminate unsanitary conditions leading to illness and death while ORT has no effect on the causes of diarrheal morbidity. The costs of WS&S are not high: $5 to $10 per capita annually. Without WS&S and hygiene education ORT programs are not likely to effect long-term improvement in child health status. ORT and WS&S programs are complementary; one should not displace the other.

Child↗
PubMed1976

Drinking water for the future.

The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 represents an important step in improving the quality of public water supply in the United States. However, it fails to address two important problems: (1) The 1970 Public Health Service Community Water Supply Survey revealed that small public water supply systems often deliver poor quality water. The Act does not assure that these supplies will now receive appropriate attention; furthermore, the Act does not address the needs of the 50 million people not now served by public water systems; (2) About one-third of our population draws its drinking waters from polluted sources. The decisions to use these low cost sources were made generations ago when consumers could be protected from water-borne infectious disease. A new problem has now arisen--the presence of numerous synthetic organic chemicals of uncertain health consequence, not removed by conventional water treatment. The Act does not address this problem. Regionalization and the integration of water resource and water pollution control authorities are proposed as a reasonable solution to these problems. The development of dual water supply systems in order to conserve scarce pure water sources for human consumption appears to be a feasible way to avoid using polluted waters for drinking. The development of dual supplies would be enhanced by regionalization and integration of water authorities.

Environmental Health↗