- Email: [email protected]
Water quality control in rural Ivory Coast
TRANSA~IONSOFTHEROYALSOCIETYOFTROPICALMEDICINE
Water
quality
AND
HYGIENE,VOL. 77, No. 1,119-120 (1983)
control
119
in rural Ivory Coast
MARC C. LAVOIE~AND P. VIENS~ ‘Dt?partementde biochimie, Fact& desscienceset de gknie, Universitk Lava& Qukbec, Quk., Canada, GIK 7P4; ‘Dipartement de microbiologic et immunologie, Universitd de Montrkal, C.P. 6128, Succ. “A”, Mot&al, Canada, H3C 3J7
Water Quality Control Service (WQCS), was created in 1976 in the Republic of the Ivory Coast (RIC) aspart of a National Rural Hydraulic Project (NRHP) which aimed to provide potable water to every village of more than 100 inhabitants (approximately 10,600 wells). The bacteriological quality of the rural water points (drilled and bored wells) was assessedby the enumeration of total (TC) and faecal coliforms (FC) using the bacterial field monitors technique (MILLIPORE,1973)slightly modified: water was sampled and filtered on-site in the village, filters were then brought on ice to field laboratories equipped with portable incubators. Potable water contained TC lower than 50/100 ml and FC lower than S/100 ml. Water was qualified as doubtful when TC were higher than, or equal to 50/100 ml and FC lower than 5/100 ml. Polluted water meant FC higher than, or equal to 5/100 ml, these proposed Ivorian standards being adapted from existing ones (WHO, 1972; USA Public Health Service, 1962). 14% of the 6,599 well water analyses performed between November 1976and March 1980were found to be Dolluted with a mean FC concentration of ll/lOO *d. A second analysis, approximately one month after the first, showed that pollution indicators had disaDDearedwithout treatment in 68% of 110 previously-contaminated well waters. Another survey indicated that the possible causes of pollution were essentially in the well construction defects and the presence of pollution sources near the well. Traditional water sources were polluted in a pro ortion of 95% with a mean FC content of 11,421P100 ml. The World Health Organization mdntidned that it would be difficult to maintain international drinking water standards for individual and small community supplies (OMS, 1972). The Spanish standards allow as much as 2 FC/lOO ml for treated drinking water (DEGREMONT, 1978). Many tropical workers?BRADLEY. 1977: FEACHEM. 1977) have alreadv criticized the inadequacy of applying d&king standards, established for temperate climates, in water supplies of tropical developing countries. According to FEACHEM (1977), this may well have been responsible for retardmg the development of water supplies in those countries. In the Ivory Coast, according to the international standards (OMS, 1972), approximately 65% of the new wells would have to be condemned which would have left the population only with their traditional water sources. The above proposed Ivorian standards to assess the bacteriological quantity in rural drinking water are a compromiie betieen WHO standards and Vincent (LAPEYSSONIE,1970) and Feachem’s (FEACHEM, 1977) proposed &anda;ds, in that more consideration is devoted to the presenceof
faecal coliforms of well established faecal origin than to total coliforms which include species of doubtful faecal origin (MILLIPORE, 1973). The average concentration of FCilOO ml in traditional water sources was 1000 times higher than the averageconcentration in the wells of th&NHP. Bored wells (0.8 to 1.0 m diameter. mean deDth 17 m with visit& traDs) were twice as*polluted & drilled wells (0.2 & di&&er, mean depth 49 m completely sealed). Not considering hvdroeeoloeical factors. the re<s of our bacterial a&lysei woild tend to f&our the choice of drilled wells instead of bored wells in order to obtain and maintain a better water quality. However, the water exhaust system then needs to be reliable and also give a sufficient flow rate, otherwise there is no alternative way for the villagers to obtain water, except the traditional sources.Water quality control has been integrated in the daily activities of the rural medicine bases, which permits the backing-up of the health education actions ‘of the use of Dotable water. The action of water analysis helped the villagers to understand the importance of using and maintaining the new wells in good’ order. During their analysis, the agents explained to the villagers what they were doing, shbwed them membranes (where growth appeared) and exDlained whv this was so. Onlv 14% of 357 villages- agreed to- &an the surroundings of their wells when the health education teams operated independently from water analysis teams. On the other hand, 380 of 426 villages (89%) agreed to clean the well surroundings when explanations were given to them by the water quality control teams while doing their analysis. The creation of a Water Quality Control Service integrated with the activities of a National Rural Hydraulic Project brought an improvement in the well construction criteria, especially for the sanitary seals at ground level. Potability of the water is now part of the criteria for acceptability of the wells in the Ivory Coast. Our study showed that drinking water standards should be realistic in a tropical country especially_if the alternative is the condemnation or even the temporary closure of the water point. References
Bradley,D. J. (1977). Improvementof rural domesticwater supplies.Proceedingsof The Royal Society, London, B, 199, 37-47. Degremont (1978). Memento technique de l’eau. Technique et
This work was carried out whilst the authors were consultants for Geomines Ltd, Montreal.
120
WATER
QUALITY
CONTROL
IN
NORY
COAST
documentation, 8th ed., Paris, Degremont, pp. 11361137. Feachem, R. (1977). Water supplies for low income communities: resource allocation, planning and design for a crisis sanitation; in Water, wastes and health in hot climates. R. Feachem, M. McGarry & D. Mara (Editor). Toronto: John Wiley and Sons Ltd., pp. 75-95. Lapeyssonie, L. (1970). El6ments d’Hygi2ne et de Sante’ $Zique sous les Tropiques. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, p.
Application Manual AM 302, Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA 01730, USA, pp. 52-55. USA Public Health Service (1962). Public health service drinking water standards. PHS publ. No. 956, Washington, D.C., USA WHO (OMS) (1972). Normes intemationales pour l’eau de boisson;3e edition, WHO (OMS), Geneva, pp. 16-26.
Millipore (1973). Biological analysis of water and wastewatm.
Accepted
Admission
to the Fellowship
of the Society
All registered medical and veterinary practitioners and others interested in scientific pursuits relating to tropical medicine, whose qualifications are deemed satisfactory by the Council, are eligible for election as Fellows of the Society. The annual subscription payable by Fellows is 525. The Transactions and the current Year Book of the Society are posted regularly to every Fellow whose subscription is not in arrear. The Transactions is available to Libraries and non-Fellows
at an annual subscription
of E55.
Further information may be obtained from the Hon. Secretaries,Manson House, 26 Portland Place, London WlN 4EY, or from the Local Secretary of the district.
for publication 8th July, 1982.
CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP WITH THE ROYAL COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY, 18 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, WC2 5BJ
The Society has taken up Corporate Membership with the above Society, which has premises just off Trafalgar Square. Overseas Fellows can now use the facilities of this Society, when they come to London, for a period of 21 days in any three months provided that all booking is done through the Secretary at Manson House. Fellows who wish to use these
facilities must give the Secretary adequate notice of their requirements particularly during the summer when at-least two months’ notice wili be required. Details of the facilities available will be sent to Fellows on request.
Water
quality
AND
HYGIENE,VOL. 77, No. 1,119-120 (1983)
control
119
in rural Ivory Coast
MARC C. LAVOIE~AND P. VIENS~ ‘Dt?partementde biochimie, Fact& desscienceset de gknie, Universitk Lava& Qukbec, Quk., Canada, GIK 7P4; ‘Dipartement de microbiologic et immunologie, Universitd de Montrkal, C.P. 6128, Succ. “A”, Mot&al, Canada, H3C 3J7
Water Quality Control Service (WQCS), was created in 1976 in the Republic of the Ivory Coast (RIC) aspart of a National Rural Hydraulic Project (NRHP) which aimed to provide potable water to every village of more than 100 inhabitants (approximately 10,600 wells). The bacteriological quality of the rural water points (drilled and bored wells) was assessedby the enumeration of total (TC) and faecal coliforms (FC) using the bacterial field monitors technique (MILLIPORE,1973)slightly modified: water was sampled and filtered on-site in the village, filters were then brought on ice to field laboratories equipped with portable incubators. Potable water contained TC lower than 50/100 ml and FC lower than S/100 ml. Water was qualified as doubtful when TC were higher than, or equal to 50/100 ml and FC lower than 5/100 ml. Polluted water meant FC higher than, or equal to 5/100 ml, these proposed Ivorian standards being adapted from existing ones (WHO, 1972; USA Public Health Service, 1962). 14% of the 6,599 well water analyses performed between November 1976and March 1980were found to be Dolluted with a mean FC concentration of ll/lOO *d. A second analysis, approximately one month after the first, showed that pollution indicators had disaDDearedwithout treatment in 68% of 110 previously-contaminated well waters. Another survey indicated that the possible causes of pollution were essentially in the well construction defects and the presence of pollution sources near the well. Traditional water sources were polluted in a pro ortion of 95% with a mean FC content of 11,421P100 ml. The World Health Organization mdntidned that it would be difficult to maintain international drinking water standards for individual and small community supplies (OMS, 1972). The Spanish standards allow as much as 2 FC/lOO ml for treated drinking water (DEGREMONT, 1978). Many tropical workers?BRADLEY. 1977: FEACHEM. 1977) have alreadv criticized the inadequacy of applying d&king standards, established for temperate climates, in water supplies of tropical developing countries. According to FEACHEM (1977), this may well have been responsible for retardmg the development of water supplies in those countries. In the Ivory Coast, according to the international standards (OMS, 1972), approximately 65% of the new wells would have to be condemned which would have left the population only with their traditional water sources. The above proposed Ivorian standards to assess the bacteriological quantity in rural drinking water are a compromiie betieen WHO standards and Vincent (LAPEYSSONIE,1970) and Feachem’s (FEACHEM, 1977) proposed &anda;ds, in that more consideration is devoted to the presenceof
faecal coliforms of well established faecal origin than to total coliforms which include species of doubtful faecal origin (MILLIPORE, 1973). The average concentration of FCilOO ml in traditional water sources was 1000 times higher than the averageconcentration in the wells of th&NHP. Bored wells (0.8 to 1.0 m diameter. mean deDth 17 m with visit& traDs) were twice as*polluted & drilled wells (0.2 & di&&er, mean depth 49 m completely sealed). Not considering hvdroeeoloeical factors. the re<s of our bacterial a&lysei woild tend to f&our the choice of drilled wells instead of bored wells in order to obtain and maintain a better water quality. However, the water exhaust system then needs to be reliable and also give a sufficient flow rate, otherwise there is no alternative way for the villagers to obtain water, except the traditional sources.Water quality control has been integrated in the daily activities of the rural medicine bases, which permits the backing-up of the health education actions ‘of the use of Dotable water. The action of water analysis helped the villagers to understand the importance of using and maintaining the new wells in good’ order. During their analysis, the agents explained to the villagers what they were doing, shbwed them membranes (where growth appeared) and exDlained whv this was so. Onlv 14% of 357 villages- agreed to- &an the surroundings of their wells when the health education teams operated independently from water analysis teams. On the other hand, 380 of 426 villages (89%) agreed to clean the well surroundings when explanations were given to them by the water quality control teams while doing their analysis. The creation of a Water Quality Control Service integrated with the activities of a National Rural Hydraulic Project brought an improvement in the well construction criteria, especially for the sanitary seals at ground level. Potability of the water is now part of the criteria for acceptability of the wells in the Ivory Coast. Our study showed that drinking water standards should be realistic in a tropical country especially_if the alternative is the condemnation or even the temporary closure of the water point. References
Bradley,D. J. (1977). Improvementof rural domesticwater supplies.Proceedingsof The Royal Society, London, B, 199, 37-47. Degremont (1978). Memento technique de l’eau. Technique et
This work was carried out whilst the authors were consultants for Geomines Ltd, Montreal.
120
WATER
QUALITY
CONTROL
IN
NORY
COAST
documentation, 8th ed., Paris, Degremont, pp. 11361137. Feachem, R. (1977). Water supplies for low income communities: resource allocation, planning and design for a crisis sanitation; in Water, wastes and health in hot climates. R. Feachem, M. McGarry & D. Mara (Editor). Toronto: John Wiley and Sons Ltd., pp. 75-95. Lapeyssonie, L. (1970). El6ments d’Hygi2ne et de Sante’ $Zique sous les Tropiques. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, p.
Application Manual AM 302, Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA 01730, USA, pp. 52-55. USA Public Health Service (1962). Public health service drinking water standards. PHS publ. No. 956, Washington, D.C., USA WHO (OMS) (1972). Normes intemationales pour l’eau de boisson;3e edition, WHO (OMS), Geneva, pp. 16-26.
Millipore (1973). Biological analysis of water and wastewatm.
Accepted
Admission
to the Fellowship
of the Society
All registered medical and veterinary practitioners and others interested in scientific pursuits relating to tropical medicine, whose qualifications are deemed satisfactory by the Council, are eligible for election as Fellows of the Society. The annual subscription payable by Fellows is 525. The Transactions and the current Year Book of the Society are posted regularly to every Fellow whose subscription is not in arrear. The Transactions is available to Libraries and non-Fellows
at an annual subscription
of E55.
Further information may be obtained from the Hon. Secretaries,Manson House, 26 Portland Place, London WlN 4EY, or from the Local Secretary of the district.
for publication 8th July, 1982.
CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP WITH THE ROYAL COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY, 18 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, WC2 5BJ
The Society has taken up Corporate Membership with the above Society, which has premises just off Trafalgar Square. Overseas Fellows can now use the facilities of this Society, when they come to London, for a period of 21 days in any three months provided that all booking is done through the Secretary at Manson House. Fellows who wish to use these
facilities must give the Secretary adequate notice of their requirements particularly during the summer when at-least two months’ notice wili be required. Details of the facilities available will be sent to Fellows on request.