engineering

Safe household water storage

Safe household water storage is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Safe household water storage rather than just read about it. In short: Safe household water storage is a critical component of a Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) system being promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) worldwide in areas that do not have piped drinking water. In these areas, it is not uncommon for drinking water to be stored in a pot, jar, crock or other container in the home.

Key takeaways

Safe household water storage belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Safe household water storage to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Safe household water storage from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Safe household water storage is a critical component of a Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) system being promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) worldwide in areas that do not have piped drinking water. In these areas, it is not uncommon for drinking water to be stored in a pot, jar, crock or other container in the home. Even if this drinking water was of acceptable microbiological quality initially, it can become contaminated by dirty hands and utensils, such as dirty diapers and cups. Drinking water containers with "narrow dispensers are key" to keeping water from being contaminated while being stored in the home. All types of 'safe household water storage must be used with water from known clean sources or with water having received prior efficacious treatment.

Examples of containers Solar Cookers International (SCI) has incorporated the Safe Household Water Storage container in their water pasteurization programs in Kenya. They are part of a safe water package that consists of a CooKit solar cooker, a black pot, a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI), and a Safe Household Water Storage container. The containers are handmade out of clay by local artisans. Their design incorporates a small opening at the top to help prevent children from dipping cups and possibly dirty hands into the drinking water. There is a spigot at the bottom. "Unfortunately, the spigot is almost as expensive as the container itself." In total each costs about KSh.450/= or about US$6.00. The unglazed clay container helps to keep the water naturally somewhat cool in dry climates because a very small amount of the water is absorbed by the container and then evaporates.

Background The United Nations' Millennium Declaration adopted by its General Assembly in September 2000 set Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that have a purpose of significantly reducing the proportion of people in the world in extreme poverty. Resolution 19 specifically states with respect to drinking water, "To halve, by the year 2015...the proportion of the world's people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water". In 2009 the United Nations published The Millennium Development Goals Report that states: "The world is well on its way to meeting the drinking water target, though some countries still face enormous challenges." One way that the World Health Organization (WHO) has supported the safe drinking water goal is with its Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) program which targets people who are not connected to community water systems. Their website states that improved HWTS techniques can dramatically improve drinking water quality and reduce diarrhoeal diseases for those who must rely on unsafe water supplies. It reminds us that there are 1.6 million diarrhoeal deaths per year related to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene and that these are mostly of children under 5 years old.

See also Point-of-use water treatment which discusses a variety of water treatment methods which may be used by households to improve water quality. Self-supply of water and sanitation UN-Water is a mechanism of the United Nations with the purpose of supporting water-related efforts.

References

External links World Health Organization (WHO): Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) program. WHO/SDE/WSH/02.07 report: Managing water in the home: accelerated health gains from improved water supply prepared by Professor Mark D. Sobsey, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, report covers many aspects of a HWTS system including storage, treatment, social/economic aspects, and monitoring. The portion of the above report most pertinent to this article is Chapter 4: Storage and treatment of household water. WHO: Other related drinking water quality programs.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Safe household water storage

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Safe household water storage claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Safe household water storage before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Safe household water storage ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Safe household water storage

In research: Safe household water storage appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Safe household water storage in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Safe household water storage is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Appropriate technology, Containers, Drinking water, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Safe household water storage outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Safe household water storage in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Safe household water storage means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Safe household water storage out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Safe household water storage in simple terms?

Why does Safe household water storage matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Safe household water storage?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Safe household water storage.