Food and water security issues in Russia II: Water security in general population of Russian Arctic, Siberia and Far East, 2000–2011

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Alexey A. Dudarev, Eugenia V. Dushkina, Yuliya N. Sladkova, Pavel R. Alloyarov, Valery S. Chupakhin, Vitaliy M. Dorofeyev, Tatjana A. Kolesnikova, Kirill B. Fridman, Birgitta Evengard, Lena M. Nilsson
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2013
• Subjects: water security; drinking water; centralized; non-centralized water sources; chemical; biological contamination; pollutants; bacteria; spores; cysts; virus; pesticides; metals; Russian Arctic; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Evenki; Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.22646; https://doaj.org/article/218473e6099841d7ae173f15b6e38bf0

Background . Poor state of water supply systems, shortage of water purification facilities and disinfection systems, low quality of drinking water generally in Russia and particularly in the regions of the Russian Arctic, Siberia and Far East have been defined in the literature. However, no standard protocol of water security assessment has been used in the majority of studies. Study design and methods . Uniform water security indicators collected from Russian official statistical sources for the period 2000–2011 were used for comparison for 18 selected regions in the Russian Arctic, Siberia and Far East. The following indicators of water security were analyzed: water consumption, chemical and biological contamination of water reservoirs of Categories I and II of water sources (centralized – underground and surface, and non-centralized) and of drinking water. Results . Water consumption in selected regions fluctuated from 125 to 340 L/person/day. Centralized water sources (both underground and surface sources) are highly contaminated by chemicals (up to 40–80%) and biological agents (up to 55% in some regions), mainly due to surface water sources. Underground water sources show relatively low levels of biological contamination, while chemical contamination is high due to additional water contamination during water treatment and transportation in pipelines. Non-centralized water sources are highly contaminated (both chemically and biologically) in 32–90% of samples analyzed. Very high levels of chemical contamination of drinking water (up to 51%) were detected in many regions, mainly in the north-western part of the Russian Arctic. Biological contamination of drinking water was generally much lower (2.5–12%) everywhere except Evenki AO (27%), and general and thermotolerant coliform bacteria predominated in drinking water samples from all regions (up to 17.5 and 12.5%, correspondingly). The presence of other agents was much lower: Coliphages – ...