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. 2017 Feb 7;14(2):152.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph14020152.

Can Sanitary Surveys Replace Water Quality Testing? Evidence from Kisii, Kenya

Aaron Gichaba Misati  1 , George Ogendi  2 , Rachel Peletz  3 , Ranjiv Khush  4 , Emily Kumpel  5
Affiliations

Can Sanitary Surveys Replace Water Quality Testing? Evidence from Kisii, Kenya

Aaron Gichaba Misati et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Information about the quality of rural drinking water sources can be used to manage their safety and mitigate risks to health. Sanitary surveys, which are observational checklists to assess hazards present at water sources, are simpler to conduct than microbial tests. We assessed whether sanitary survey results were associated with measured indicator bacteria levels in rural drinking water sources in Kisii Central, Kenya. Overall, thermotolerant coliform (TTC) levels were high: all of the samples from the 20 tested dug wells, almost all (95%) of the samples from the 25 tested springs, and 61% of the samples from the 16 tested rainwater harvesting systems were contaminated with TTC. There were no significant associations between TTC levels and overall sanitary survey scores or their individual components. Contamination by TTC was associated with source type (dug wells and springs were more contaminated than rainwater systems). While sanitary surveys cannot be substituted for microbial water quality results in this context, they could be used to identify potential hazards and contribute to a comprehensive risk management approach.

Keywords: dug wells; rainwater harvesting; rural water supply; sanitary surveys; springs; water quality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kisii County with the study areas of Keumbu, Kiogoro, and Kitutu Chache (which includes Mosocho as a smaller area within Kitutu Chache). Shapefiles were obtained from DIVA-GIS (diva-gis.org).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Boxplots of the thermotolerant coliform (TTC) concentrations for each RS category by: (a) All water sources; (b) Dug wells; (c) Springs; (d) Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Variability between results from two samples collected from the same water source. (a) Percent of samples positive for TTC during the first and second samplings among sources tested twice; (b) Boxplot of the difference in TTC between the first and second sampling in each source type among the sources tested twice; (c) Boxplot of the TTC concentrations in samples collected when no prior rain (none) or rain in the last day (rain) in all tested source types. TNTC: too numerous to count.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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