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

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 20002011 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 4080%) 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 3290 % of samples analyzed. Very high level