Water Quality and Health

Living within a viral pandemic has brought home the importance of our relationship with microbes. Yet we are in the midst of another microbial risk that threatens to have a much larger impact on our lives. Microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi or protists) that cause disease in humans, animals or plants are normally treated with antimicrobial drugs to control their numbers. Drug use has become routine since Alexander Fleming’s famous discovery of penicillin, in public health, veterinary practice and crop protection.

Around 3.3% of Scotland’s population (182,516 people) are served by private water supplies (PWS) together with transient visitors such as tourists. This project sought to develop an understanding of the epidemiology and disease burden contribution of PWS in Scotland on the public health of the populations (indigenous and transient) exposed to the PWS. The project report comprises a risk profile to provide current knowledge about the risks of gastrointestinal pathogens associated with private water supplies in Scotland.

Septic tank systems (STS) are private sewage treatment facilities which typically serve the population not connected to main sewer networks. There is substantial uncertainty about the impact of septic tanks on water quality, primarily because of a lack of information about the location, number and condition, and inadequate monitoring of the effects of septic tank discharges to surface water and groundwater.  

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has received increasing attention over the past year across the world. In the UK, local, regional and national wastewater monitoring programmes were established in 2020 to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoVID-2) patterns in human sewage to monitor outbreaks. The establishment of these monitoring programmes has seen considerable investment into establishing the infrastructure, methodology and resources needed to sample, analyse, and interpret data from WBE.

A systematic review of evidence on lags in water quality response to diffuse pollution control measures implemented in Scotland is reported. The review focused on key pollutants in catchments smaller than 300 km² in temperate regions. Findings were evaluated based on catchment typologies (e.g. catchment size, precipitation, land use, pollutant residence time, and soil /waterbody type) and data/analyses (e.g. monitoring design and record length). There was no evidence supporting fixed timeframes for a water quality response to measures or catchment typology -based lags.

Sampling wastewater from a community can be a relatively straightforward way to determine if specific agents are being excreted by that population. As SARSCoV-2, the causative agent of COVID19, can be present in the faeces of infected people, then it may be possible to determine if a community has infected individuals by monitoring the wastewater or other sewage samples for the presence of the virus.

This project sought to review the challenges in delivering drinking water compliance, with a focus on the quality and quantity of investment drivers, and to assess the proposed or deployed solutions against these criteria. These outputs will assist in identifying value for money criteria for investment; identify how the policy and regulatory framework includes water treatment choices, risk appetite and costs; identify how changes to the policy framework could improve value for money and sustainability and inform policy on drinking water treatment based on economics and quality enhancement.

Review of monitoring techniques and sampling strategies to identify the most significant sources of Faecal Indicator Organisms (FIO) within a catchment 

This project set out to develop recommendations for delivery of a scientifically robust, efficient and cost-effective sanitary survey programme and environmental monitoring programme to better inform Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) shellfish water programmes.

Are radon concentrations in drinking water higher in the high-risk area, where the underlying geology is likely to deliver high radon concentrations in groundwater and indoor-air, than elsewhere in Scotland? What should the minimum allowable radon concentration (parametric value) and action level for remedial action be in drinking water to protect public health from exposure to radon?