Water Security and Public Health in Small Remote Communities

Dear Colleagues,

Lack of access to clean and safe drinking water (i.e., water insecurity) has been a crisis in many small, remote communities (SRCs) around the globe. The 2015 Millennium Development Goal Report by the WHO and UNICEF pointed out that 663 million people in SRCs worldwide use unprotected sources of drinking water. Several challenges are responsible for the water insecurity in SRCs, such as the deterioration of source water quality, rapid climate change, aging water infrastructure, limited financial support, and lack of trained water operators. Water insecurity not only results in the need for increasing governmental investment in water infrastructure but also poses a great threat to public health.

In the past few years, many efforts have been made to find effective technical solutions to improve water security in SRCs. The efforts include developing artificial-intelligence-based water quality monitoring programs, identifying contaminants of emerging concern in water, assessing the associated health risks, as well as developing fit-for-purpose, cost-effective water treatment processes, smart water quality management strategies, and resilient water supply infrastructure. This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of the recently developed technical solutions for addressing water insecurity in SRCs. Topics will cover new findings and developments in water supply and public health protection in SRCs, including resilient water infrastructure and risk assessment, contaminants of emerging concerns in water, innovative cost-effective water treatment processes, sustainable water supply, source water protection, water-related health risk assessment, and water quality/supply management under external stresses (e.g., natural disasters, pandemic).

Dr. Guangji Hu
Prof. Dr. Jianbing Li
Prof. Dr. Rehan Sadiq
Dr. Zoe Li
Dr. Haroon R. Mian
Dr. Gyan Chhipi Shrestha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.