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    Water use practices, water quality, and households' diarrheal encounters in communities along the Boro-Thamalakane-Boteti river system, Northern Botswana

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    Date
    2015-11-18
    Author
    Tubatsi, G.
    Bonyongo, M.C.
    Gondwe, M.
    Publisher
    BioMed Central; https://jhpn.biomedcentral.com
    Link
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284174337_Water_use_practices_water_quality_and_households'_diarrheal_encounters_in_communities_along_the_Boro-Thamalakane-Boteti_river_system_Northern_Botswana/download
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    This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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    The authors
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    Published Article
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    Abstract
    Abstract Background: Some rural African communities residing along rivers use the untreated river water for domestic purposes, making them vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as diarrhea. Methods: We determined water use practices and water quality, relating them to prevalence of diarrhea in communities along the Boro-Thamalakane-Boteti river system, northern Botswana. A total of 452 households were interviewed and 196 water samples collected show during February, May, September, and December 2012 in settlements of Boro, Maun, Xobe, Samedupi, Chanoga, and Motopi. Information was sought on water use practices (collection, storage, and handling) and diarrheal experience using questionnaires. Water quality was assessed for physicochemical and microbiological parameters using portable field meters and laboratory analysis, respectively. Results: All (100 %) of the river water samples collected were fecally contaminated and unsuitable for domestic use without prior treatment. Samples had Escherichia coli (E.coli) and fecal streptococci levels reaching up to 186 and 140 CFU/100 ml, respectively. Study revealed high dependence on the fecally contaminated river water with low uptake of water treatment techniques. Up to 48 % of households indicated that they experience diarrhea, with most cases occurring during the early flooding season (May). Nonetheless, there was no significant relationship between river water quality and households’ diarrheal experience across studied settlements (p > 0.05). Failure to treat river water before use was a significant predictor of diarrhea (p = 0.028). Conclusions: Even though the river water was unsafe for domestic use, results imply further recontamination of water at household level highlighting the need for simple and affordable household water treatment techniques.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1946
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    • Research articles (ORI) [270]

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