Assessing Drinking Water Quality at the Point of Collection and within Household Storage Containers in the Hilly Rural Areas of Mid and Far-Western Nepal

D. Daniel, Arnt Diener, Jack van de Vossenberg, Madan Bhatta and Sara J. Marks
Additional contact information
D. Daniel: Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, 2628CD Delft, The Netherlands
Arnt Diener: Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec), Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology-Eawag, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Jack van de Vossenberg: Department of Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental Engineering, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands
Madan Bhatta: Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Nepal, Jhamshikhel Dhobi Ghat, Lalitpur, GPO Box 688 Kathmandu, Nepal
Sara J. Marks: Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec), Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology-Eawag, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Accurate assessments of drinking water quality, household hygenic practices, and the mindset of the consumers are critical for developing effective water intervention strategies. This paper presents a microbial quality assessment of 512 samples from household water storage containers and 167 samples from points of collection (POC) in remote rural communities in the hilly area of western Nepal. We found that 81% of the stored drinking water samples (mean log 10 of all samples = 1.16 colony-forming units (CFU)/100 mL, standard deviation (SD) = 0.84) and 68% of the POC samples (mean log 10 of all samples = 0.57 CFU/100 mL, SD = 0.86) had detectable E. coli . The quality of stored water was significantly correlated with the quality at the POC, with the majority (63%) of paired samples showing a deterioration in quality post-collection. Locally applied household water treatment (HWT) methods did not effectively improve microbial water quality. Among all household sanitary inspection questions, only the presence of livestock near the water storage container was significantly correlated with its microbial contamination. Households’ perceptions of their drinking water quality were mostly influenced by the water’s visual appearance, and these perceptions in general motivated their use of HWT. Improving water quality within the distribution network and promoting safer water handling practices are proposed to reduce the health risk due to consumption of contaminated water in this setting.

Keywords: water quality; E. coli; sanitary inspection; household hygiene; hilly area; rural communities; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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