Banca de DEFESA: RAYSSA HORACIO LOPES

SURVEILLANCE OF WATER QUALITY FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION: analysis of actions developed

Drinking Water. Public Health Surveillance. Public Health. Human Rights.

Drinking water is indispensable for life, recognized by the United Nations as a fundamental human right, it is one of the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals, as it guides access to safe water for all and the elimination of water-borne diseases until 2030. Water quality is a health protection factor and is given through essential requirements oriented by countries, or based on guidelines published by the World Health Organization, translated into the standard of quality and potability. It is recommended that drinking water be the object of surveillance actions and with that, it becomes relevant to analyze how these actions have been developed on the world stage. The objective is to analyze the actions of surveillance of the drinking water quality developed by governmental agencies or public health services of the countries. As specific objectives: a) Propose a scoping review protocol to identify and map global actions and initiatives to monitor the quality of drinking water implemented by government agencies or public health services; b) Identify and map drinking water quality surveillance actions and initiatives implemented worldwide by government agencies or public health services. This is a scoping review, based on recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute. The 9 steps were followed: definition and alignment of research objectives and questions; development and alignment of inclusion criteria; description of evidence selection; search for evidence; evidence selection; evidence extraction; evidence analysis; results presentation; summary of evidence, conclusions and implications of findings. Additionally, stakeholders were consulted to share the results of the review. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes. The results supported the writing of two articles, being (1) “Surveillance of Drinking Water Quality Worldwide: Scoping Review Protocol” and (2) “Worldwide surveillance actions and initiatives of drinking water quality: a scoping review”. The study protocol highlighted the characteristics and methodological steps that guided the review, favoring replicability and reliability of the research process, providing scientific rigor to the work. The scope review identified and mapped the drinking water quality surveillance actions developed, their impacts and results, producing four thematic classes: (1) evaluation of coverage, accessibility, quantity and quality of water for human consumption in situations routine and emergencies; (2) analysis of physical-chemical and microbiological parameters in public supply networks and alternative water supply solutions; (3) Identification of household water contamination, communication and education with the community and (4) Investigation of outbreaks of water-borne diseases, which detailed important actions and results in the countries, allowing the comparability and identification of the main challenges object of these actions. The study identified important issues that need to be analyzed so that drinking water quality surveillance actions can contribute to safe access to water.