Drinking water quality in the Mount Kasigau region of Kenya: a source to point-of-use assessment

Drinking water quality was investigated in seven rural villages surrounding Mount Kasigau in southeastern Kenya, where water is piped from unprotected dammed streams and springs in the Kasigau cloud forest down to taps, kiosks, and tanks in the villages. Analyses were conducted for nutrients, trace metals, and pathogen indicators in water from community taps, water stored in homes, and collection points along the pipelines up to catchment dams on the mountain. Water was relatively free from nutrient and trace-metal contamination; however, all samples were contaminated with total coliforms and nearly all were contaminated with Escherichia coli. There was no discernable pattern in the extent of contamination from the catchment dams to the villages. In each of three villages chosen for further study, six residents were selected for a more in-depth investigation. Water quality was generally worse in water stored in those homes compared to water collected at the village taps. The quality of drinking water in homes where treatment was applied was no better than in homes with no water treatment. The Kasigau villages, as many other areas in the developing world, need inexpensive and effective water treatment, as well as an assessment of the effectiveness of sanitary and hygienic practices.