Household water storage compromises drinking water safety in a “safely managed” system
6 affiliations
- 1Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
- 2Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
- 3Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
- 4Laboratório de Higiene de Águas e Alimentos, Beira, Mozambique
- 5Autoridade Reguladora de Água e Saneamento (AURA, IP), Beira, Mozambique
- 6Instituto Nacional de Saúde, Ministério de Saúde, Maputo, Mozambique
Abstract
While nearly three-quarters of the globe use safely managed drinking water services, water quality can deteriorate between the point of service provision and point of consumption due to intermittent supply and the need to store water at the household level. To test if water storage contributes to waterborne pathogen hazards, we estimated prevalence and concentration of enteric pathogens in piped and stored drinking water samples in Beira, Mozambique, using large-volume sampling methods. We assessed water sample concentrates for microbial contamination from bacterial, protozoan, viral, helminthic, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and microbial source tracking targets with RT-qPCR using a custom TaqMan Array Card. We found that enteric pathogens, AMR targets, and human mtDNA were more prevalent in stored drinking water compared to household tap water. We also detected enteric pathogens— including Cryptosporidium, Giardia, pathogenic Escherichia coli, and rotavirus— directly from 13% (11/87) of piped sources connected to a well-managed, but intermittent, water supply system, albeit less frequently than in stored water. These findings suggest that without continuity in service delivery combined with effective filtration treatment in piped supplies and safe storage microbial contamination of drinking water at the point of use may continue to occur.
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BibTeX
@article{linden2026household,
title = {{Household water storage compromises drinking water safety in a “safely managed” system}},
author = {Yarrow Linden and Erin Kowalsky and Kevin Zhu and Christine Fagnant-Sperati and Sandra McGunegill and Arnaldo Cumbana and Magalhães Mangamela and Rassul Nalá and Matthew C. Freeman and Karen Levy and Joe Brown and The PAASIM Study Authorship Consortium},
journal = {PLOS Water},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pwat.0000523},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000523},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Household water storage compromises drinking water safety in a “safely managed” system
AU - Yarrow Linden
AU - Erin Kowalsky
AU - Kevin Zhu
AU - Christine Fagnant-Sperati
AU - Sandra McGunegill
AU - Arnaldo Cumbana
AU - Magalhães Mangamela
AU - Rassul Nalá
AU - Matthew C. Freeman
AU - Karen Levy
AU - Joe Brown
AU - The PAASIM Study Authorship Consortium
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - PLOS Water
DO - 10.1371/journal.pwat.0000523
UR - https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000523
AB - While nearly three-quarters of the globe use safely managed drinking water services, water quality can deteriorate between the point of service provision and point of consumption due to intermittent supply and the need to store water at the household level. To test if water storage contributes to waterborne pathogen hazards, we estimated prevalence and concentration of enteric pathogens in piped and stored drinking water samples in Beira, Mozambique, using large-volume sampling methods. We assessed water sample concentrates for microbial contamination from bacterial, protozoan, viral, helminthic, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and microbial source tracking targets with RT-qPCR using a custom TaqMan Array Card. We found that enteric pathogens, AMR targets, and human mtDNA were more prevalent in stored drinking water compared to household tap water. We also detected enteric pathogens— including Cryptosporidium, Giardia, pathogenic Escherichia coli, and rotavirus— directly from 13% (11/87) of piped sources connected to a well-managed, but intermittent, water supply system, albeit less frequently than in stored water. These findings suggest that without continuity in service delivery combined with effective filtration treatment in piped supplies and safe storage microbial contamination of drinking water at the point of use may continue to occur.
SN - 2767-3219
ER -