3. Results
Rural and urban environments exhibited distinct patterns in terms of tank and water use characteristics (Table 1). All of the urban tanks are supplied with drinking water treated in a desalination plant and are directly connected to the water network. In rural environments one third of the water supply comes from groundwater wells and is destined for irrigation and washing purposes. Desalinated drinking water to the remaining water tanks is transported by truck from the reservoirs. Sixty percent of the urban tanks and all of the rural water impoundments were directly exposed to the sunlight and the majority of the water tanks in both environments were covered (urban 100%, rural 91.7%). The material of the tank was very diverse in both settings including plastic, metal, and fiberglass. The appearance of water within the tanks was uniformly clear in both settings and only 20% of the urban tanks emanated an odor.