ABSTRACT
Water is a vital natural resource which is a pre-requisite for the proper functioning of every life form as well as the ecosystem. Due to different natural and anthropogenic activities both the quality and quantity of water degrading day by day at present. Water safety plan (WSP) is one of the most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply. This study analyzed the effectiveness of WSP interventions in rural areas of two Arsenic vulnerable sub-districts of the Narail District in Bangladesh in terms of sanitary scores and microbiological contamination. After WSP intervention, source water fecal contamination percentage improved slightly (3%) while in storage water it shows a considerable improvement (8%). On the other hand, in case of sanitary scoring, low-risk scores improved to 81% from 56% after intervention at the source level. The study shows that the chances of contamination were high during water handling for storage of water, only 21% and 32% were in no risk category in baseline and post intervention. The sanitary risk score method available and used was found useful and easy to apply at the field level. But when it showed ‘low’ score stating ‘no action’ under the group, microbiological pollution was observed in a significant proportion of options in that group. This means that there were other risk factors not included in the method and chances for leaving gaps in the holistic approach.
