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C. Namanda:
"Health-Related Water Microbiology of Domestic Water in Katanga Slum, Kampala, Uganda";
Betreuer/in(nen): K. Irvine, N. Kreuzinger, P. van der Steen; Institut für Wassergüte, Ressourcenmanagement und Abfallwirtschaft, 2012; Abschlussprüfung: 04/2012.

Safe water supply is still a problem in the urban poor areas in many cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study focused on the health-related water microbiology of domestic water in Katanga slum, Kampala, Uganda using some elements in Water Safety Plan to assess its safety from various sources within the settlement to the household. The study ran from October 2011 to April 2012. This was achieved by undertaking; i) a community survey for sanitation, water supply and clinical data; ii) household survey for demographic data, access to water sources; iii) water quality analysis for the water sources, water in the containers of vendors and water stored in the households; iv) epidemiological studies (Retrospective Study and Prospective Study).
Tap water was the major water source in Katanga slum accounting 70%. The rest of the population were using either shallow wells, spring source or mixture of all. The cost of water was mainly 4.33 US$/m³ from private taps and 6.49 US$/m³ for water sold by the vendors who collected it from the spring source. 94% of the households practiced point-of-use treatment by boiling for their drinking water. The water quality, in general, deteriorated from the water source through the vendors to the households. Tap water at the source was 0.0-1.9 log unit(cfu/100 ml) for intestinal enterococci (IE), 0.0-2.0 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for Escherichia coli (EC), 0.0-2.3 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for Total Coliforms (TC) and 0.0-2.3 log unit (cfu/ml) for (Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC). Vendors' water containers had 1.6-2.0 log unit (cfc/100 ml) for IE and 1.7 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for EC. In the households, water quality for untreated tap water was 0.0-3 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for IE and 0.0-3 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for EC, while for treated (point-of-use treatment) tap water, it was 0.0-4.3 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for IE and 0.0-4.8 log unit (cfu/100 ml) for EC.
Exposure to contaminated treated water caused waterborne illness, especially, among children below 5 years of age and females of the age group 13-50 years. The major waterborne illness from household survey was diarrhoea (5%). Others included vomiting (2%), stomach pain (2%) and 11% were suffering from more than one illness (combination of diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain). The epidemiological studies revealed that exposure to contaminated drinking-water in the households posed a high risk for waterborne illness (Relative Risk = 4.6 (1.6-13.1); Odds Ratio = 28.2 (4.0-197.4) at p=0.0002). Household point-of-use treatment by boiling seemed unnecessary as the quality of treated water stored in the households was equally poor.
Correspondingly, there was no significant reduction in risk levels for point-of-use treated water (Relative Risk = 0.9 (0.4-2.1); Odds Ratio = 0.8 (0.2-3.6) at p = 0.6).
Recent efforts to increase access to improved water sources in Katanga have not guaranteed safe drinking water at the point-of-use in the households. Unhygienic storage and handling of drinking-water within households are major obstacles that should be addressed within the framework of a Water Safety Plan that is being implemented by the main service provider. The service provider may consider measures that address safe handling of drinking-water during collection, transport and storage, especially in low-income areas like Katanga where most residents collect and store water for domestic use.