Abstract

The present paper provides an extensive literature review on water quality in BANGA-BAKUNDU. Even though the amount of available fresh water is substantial, the uneven distribution in time and space creates problems for availability. Due to this, the BANGA Community is developing increasing water deficiency.

The degradation of water supply system and sewages is often severe leading to potentially high water loss during the dry season and in the rainy season there is lot of runoffs which pollute the water channel, and hence increase the waterborne disease prevalence in the community. The stake holds in the community of BANGA-BAKUNDU, the problems which the community of BANGA-BAKUNDU faces are as a result of poor water quality.

This is because the area normally lacks potable water and this makes the population vulnerable to serious waterborne diseases which turn to be harmful to the health of people who live in the area. Thus, the objective of this work is to identify the different waterborne diseases caused by the poor quality of water in the community, as well as critically analyze the relationship between water quality and waterborne diseases.

The methods implemented in this research, are both the primary and secondary collection of data, which include administration of questionnaires and one on one interviews gotten from the personnel on the field of study. The main results of this research is basically to show how this poor water quality in BANGA has greatly affected the population with waterborne diseases such as typhoid and diarrhea, and recommendations made were possible.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

1:1 Introduction

The first outbreak of waterborne disease to be scientifically documented in modern Western society occurred in London, England, in 1854. This early epidemiology study by John Snow, a prominent local physician, determined that the consumption of water from a sewage-contaminated public well led to cholera (Snow, 1854a, b).

This connection, decades before the germ theory of disease would be hypothesized and proven, was the first step to understanding that water contaminated with human sewage could harbor microorganisms that threaten public health. Since then, epidemiology has been the major scientific discipline used to study the transmission of infectious diseases through water (NRC, 1999a).

In the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, sanitary practices were established in the United States regarding the handling and disposal of sewage, while filtration and chlorination systems were increasingly used to disinfect drinking water. Through these historical efforts and owing to ongoing advances in water and wastewater treatment and source water protection, the United States has secured and maintains one of the cleanest and safest supplies of drinking water in the world.

Starting in 1920, national statistics on waterborne disease outbreaks caused by microorganisms, chemicals, or of unknown etiology have been collected by a variety of researchers and federal agencies (Lee et al., 2002). These data demonstrate that several outbreaks still occur every year in this country. Moreover, epidemiologists generally agree that these reported outbreaks represent only a fraction of the total that actually occur because many go undetected or unreported (NRC, 1999a). Thus, continued vigilance to protect the public from waterborne disease remains a necessity.

For more than 100 years, U.S. public health personnel have relied extensively on an indicator organism approach to assess the microbiological quality of drinking water. These bacterial indicator microorganisms (particularly “coliforms are typically used to detect the possible presence of microbial contamination of drinking water by human waste. More specifically, fecal indicator bacteria provide an estimation of the amount of feces, and indirectly, the presence and quantity of fecal pathogens in the water.

Over the long history of their development and use, coliform test methods have been standardized, they are relatively easy and inexpensive to use, and enumeration of coliforms has proven to be a useful method for assessing sewage contamination of drinking water. In conjunction with chlorination to reduce coliform levels, this practice has led to a dramatic decrease in waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever. Furthermore, the use of bacterial indicators has been extended to U.S. “ambient” waters in recent decades-especially freshwater and marine-estuarine waters used for recreation. However, an increased understanding of the diversity of waterborne pathogens, their sources, physiology, and ecology has resulted in a growing understanding that the current indicator approach may not be as universally protective as was once thought. In this regard, several limitations of bacterial indicators for waterborne pathogens have been reported and are discussed throughout this report.

Fresh water is essential in many spheres of human life and in general. It is seen as an essential input to human production and effective tool of economic development. It plays a significant role in social prosperity and well-being of all people, unfortunately, in many countries around the world including Cameroon, some potable water has been contaminated and the deteriorated quality of surface water is becoming a grave issue in many parts of the world. Water pollution is not only a serious environmental issue but also an economic and health problem around the world. water-borne diseases are conditions caused by pathogenic micro-organisms, that are transmitted in water. these diseases can be spread while bathing, washing, drinking of this contaminated water or by eating food exposed to contaminated water. While diarrhea and vomiting are the most commonly report symptoms of water-borne illness other symptoms can be included as skin, ear, respiratory or eye problems. Water-borne diseases are impacted by a country economy and also impact the economy by being costly to deal with, water-borne diseases can be spread via ground water which is contaminated with fecal pathogens from pit latrines.

Micro-organisms causing disease that characteristically are water-borne prominently include protozoa and bacteria, many of which are intestinal parasites invade the tissues or circulatory system through walls of the digestive tract. Various other water-borne disease are caused by viruses, (in spite of philosophical difficulties associated with defining viruses as organisms, it is practical and convenient to regard them as micro-organisms in this connection).

Yet other important classes of water-borne diseases are caused by metazoan parasites. Typically, examples include certain nematode, that is to say roundworms as an example of water-borne nematode infections, another important water-borne nematode disease is Dracunculiasis.  It is acquired by swallowing water in which certain copepod occur that act as vectors for the nematode. Anyone swallow in a copepod that happens to be infected with nematode larvae in the genus Dracunculus, becomes liable to infection. The larvae cause guinea worm disease.

Another cause of water-borne disease is metazoan pathogens are certain members of the schistosomatidae, a family of blood flukes, they usually infect victims that make skin contact with water. Blood flukes are pathogens that cause schistosomiasis of various forms, more or less seriously affecting hundreds of people worldwide. One of the earliest understanding of water-borne diseases, such as cholera, were once wrongly explained by the Miasma theory, the theory that bad air causes the spread of disease. However, people started to find a correlation between water quality and water-borne diseases, which led to different water purification methods, such as sand filtering and chlorinating their drinking water.

Presently the general supply of adequate water to the world population from an absolutely finite source is seen as a significant challenge (Harris, 2012). This is due to the fact that only one percent of the world total water is fresh and potable and is poorly managed (Harris, 2012). Though population growth is a key factor affecting water scarcity, improving living standards, urbanization and supply variability due to climate change also add pressure on water security especially in different parts of the world particularly sub-Saharan Africa (kumudu et al., 2015).

It is estimated that the Earth fresh water together as a single mass would measure some 1,386 million km in volume (Williams, 2014). The UN MDG report of 2015 on water, indicates that 97% of the world population now uses improve potable water sources and of this, 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved sources of potable water since 1990, 1.9 billion people now uses piped water on premises and 147 countries met the MDG target on potable water. Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest number of people without access to improve potable water, of which 80% of these people live within the remote areas.

Water stress is another feature which is gradually becoming a problem in different parts of the world today especially in Asia and Africa. This is partly due to climate change, increasing water scarcity, population growth, demographic changes and urbanization (UN, 2014) This call for concern for safe drinking water is as a result of the high rate of diseases that is 75% of all diseases are related to the poor water quality. Potable water coverages and sanitation levels in sub-Saharan Africa are lowest than any other region of the world; in 2010, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 6 of the top 10 countries in the world with the largest population without access to improve drinking water sources (Folifac et al, 2014).

Water stress is becoming a serious problem in sub-Saharan Africa, Particularly in Cameroon, where barely 44% of the total populations have access to adequate potable water (NIS, 2011; Folifac et al, 2014). AMCOW, 2015, states that 82% of the population living in urban centers have access to safe potable water however the rural areas lag behind with about 45% in 2007 of the population living without access to potable water. Under ground water remain the most reliable sources of fresh water for the population around the communities of BANGA-BAKUNDU. Even though traces of nitrate contamination have been observing (Ako et al, 2013).

The sustainable management of these sources are facing challenges such as coordination and multiple often competing uses for the resource in a way that balances environmental concerns and socio-economic demands and there exist few models that assess the trade-offs between environmental and socio-economic impacts of water management in an integrated framework (Kragt. 2013). The provision of potable water to the population lies greatly on the water supply system in place.

Water supply systems are infrastructures that involve collecting water from its source, treating, storing and finally distributing it to consumers. this water has to be of good quality and quantity in order to satisfy the need of the population. The steady increase in the population of BANGA-BAKUNDU and the rapid urbanization coupled with climatic variability factors are the main causes of the water stress existing in BANGA-BAKUNDU which has been compounded further by the management system.

Due to the failure during the conception of the project in integrating population dynamics into the system is the fundamental cause to this water stress. The characteristics of this water insecurity issues can be seen from the long queue at public taps with containers of all sizes and from businesses that deals with the commercialization of water and finally the long distance travelled by the population in search of water from different quarter and streams. This study aims to highlight the existing relationship between the population, management practices and resource in determining the principal cause of the water insecurity. Thus this study looks into the availability of the water resources, its characteristics and quality and finally the current population dynamics.

The second most important risk factor for poor health is lack of clean water and poor sanitation and it has major health impacts. There are many ways by which pathogens infect individuals through water causing water-borne diseases, and water dispersed, washed diseases, water-based diseases. Infectious diseases include water borne and water washed diseases, cholera, ameobiosis, shigellosis, salmonellosis are all infectious diseases.

The developing countries, the poor people have a great burden of diseases due to inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene. The United Nation Millennium Declaration, in particular its eighth Millennium Development Goal, reflects the global importance of water sanitation and hygiene for development, poverty reduction and health. The governments are unable to provide basic needs to the citizens, because of the rapid increases in the urban population. Compared to rural households, urban households have 135% improved sanitation facilities and 30% have improved water source in developing countries.

The UN-Water global analysis and assessment of sanitation and potable water (GLAAS) report which is published every 2 year shows that 2.3billion people around the world gained access to improved drinking water between 1990 and 2012. Death among children due to diarrheal diseases, which are strongly associated with inadequate sanitation, hygiene and poor drinking water, have also fallen over the last 20 years from 1.5 million in 1990 to just 600,000 in 2012.

1.2 Statement Of Problem

The rural area BANGA-BAKUNDU community share many common problems and unaddressed tasks in water quality which become a problem in the supply and sanitation of potable water. The degradation rate of the water supply systems and sewage treatment plants are high in BANGA-BAKUNDU.

This lead to potentially high water loss rate and inadequate accessibility to safe water supply which is a specific problem for rural areas, low tariffs in combination with absent metering and low collection rate for water fees mean that operation and maintenance costs for basic services of water supply and sanitation are not covered. Large distances between remote and sparsely populated villages in rural areas mean that alternative system may be needed; such system may be constituted by efficient and small-scale water supply and sanitation systems.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main Research Questions

Does the water quality have health effects on the population in BANGA-BAKUNDU?

1.3.2 Sub-Research Questions

1. What is the state of water quality in BANGA-BAKUNDU?
2. What are the waterborne diseases evident in the city of BANGA-BAKUNDU?
3. What is the link between water quality and the endemic city of water-borne diseases?

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