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Environmental factors controlling contamination of alternative water supply points in the Lefock semi-urban watershed, Cameroon Western Highlands

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Abstract

Due to the poorly managed water network of the Dschang municipality (West Cameroon), the peri-urban population of the Lefock watershed, frequently, consumes doubtful quality water from alternative supply points (WASPs) such as springs, wells, boreholes, and river waters. In this context, this study aimed to explore the influence of neighboring environmental conditions on the contamination of these resources. Thus, 22 WASPs and their immediate perimeter were characterized (within a 10 m radius), both from physiographic (nature of bedrock, type of WASPs, soil type, land use) and anthropogenic (presence of pit latrines, domestic wastewater, domestic breeding, agricultural activities, wild garbage dump, washing clothes on-site) points of view. In parallel, chemical (NO3−, NH4+, PO43−) and bacteriological (faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci, total coliforms, and E. coli) contamination parameters were analyzed and compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) was performed, using water quality variables as input combined with environmental data as supplementary data. This approach first revealed that waters from WASPs were generally of very poor bacterial quality due to proximity to pit latrines, domestic wastewaters, and/or agricultural surfaces. Second, chemical contamination was greater where WASPs were neighboring to agricultural plots and/or domestic wastewaters. The MFA showed that the chemical degradation of WASPs mostly occurs at the watershed scale rather than very local scale, and was representative of diffuse and likely long-term pressures over the resource. In contrast, bacteriological contaminations were better governed by immediate contexts and appeared to result from the combination of anthropogenic and physiographic constraints. Regarding the influence of physiographic characteristics, the type of soil and the nature of the WASPs are the main influencing factors. The hydromorphic context accentuates the general vulnerability, while an increasing vulnerability related to the type of WASPs was observed: spring < well and borehole < river. These results indicate that structural poor water management, combined with a limited consideration of local environmental specificities threaten sustainability of this resource in semi-urbanized zones over heterogeneous aquifers and the water security of its population. This argues for a strong twofold education effort for managers and end-users of the resource.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Obinna Chigoziem AKAKURU of the Department of Geology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria, for reviewing and improving the quality of the manuscript before submission.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Dschang, P.O Box 67, Dschang, Cameroon

    Lauric Tontsa, Lucas Kengni & Adoua Njueya Kopa

  2. Department of Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Science, University of Dschang, P.O Box 222, Dschang, Cameroon

    Emile Temgoua & Franck Fabrice Mba

  3. Chrono-Environement, CNRS UMR 6249, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 4 Place Tharradin, 25200, Montbéliard, France

    Guillaume Bertrand

  4. Civil and environmental science department, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil

    Guillaume Bertrand

  5. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, University of Sciences and Technology of Masuku, Franceville, Gabon

    Mike Castane Makaya Mvoubou

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  1. Lauric Tontsa
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  2. Emile Temgoua
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by LT, ET, GB, LK, MCMM, ANK, and FFM. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LT and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Emile Temgoua.

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Tontsa, L., Temgoua, E., Bertrand, G. et al. Environmental factors controlling contamination of alternative water supply points in the Lefock semi-urban watershed, Cameroon Western Highlands. Environ Earth Sci 82, 17 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10699-w

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