Conflict of technologies for water and sanitation in developing countries.

Abstract

Borehole water supplies, in basement rock aquifers in the West Africa Sub-region, face potential pollution hazards as a result of their close location within the same geological environments as indiscriminately sited latrines, rubbish dumps, farms and animal watering points in the communities. The heterogeneous nature of the overburden and fractures in the bedrock constitute relatively fast flow paths for surface water contaminated mainly by bacteria and nitrates which enhance the pollution of the groundwater and boreholes. To improve the drinking water quality, some measures have been taken to minimize the hazards. Further studies are required to understand better the nature and scale of the problem and to avoid the apparent conflict of technologies. It is necessary to incorporate improvements in sanitation into rural water supply projects, if the otherwise good drinking water source should not be lost to society's wastes.