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Natural occurrence of potentially harmful fluoride contamination in groundwater: an example from Nakuru County, the Kenyan Rift Valley

Environmental Earth Sciences volume 77, Article number: 365 (2018) Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 28 September 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

High fluoride concentrations have been known to have several health implications on humans and animal’s health. In this paper, we present a case study dealing with high occurrences and distribution of fluoride in different aquifers in Nakuru County, Kenyan Rift Valley. Water quality data from 32 boreholes and hydrogeological data were acquired from the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru Water program and from literature, respectively. Results show that more than 87% of the boreholes are characterized by fluoride levels higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization for safe drinking water. Fluoride levels range from 0.5 to 72 mg/l, with a mean of 11.08 mg/l, and show a strong positive correlation with the dominant physicochemical parameters and a negative correlation with calcium, borehole depth, and water hardness. The correlations suggest that minerals dissolution and evaporative enrichment might be the main processes of fluoride release and concentration in groundwater. Spatial analysis showed that fluoride concentrations were not confined to the type of aquifers, but rather to their locations. Low-fluoride aquifers were located close to the rift’s Bahati and Mau escarpments, while high fluoride aquifers were in the rift floor, where the fluoride hot spot was located. Dilution of groundwater by high rainfall and little residence time in the escarpments recharge zones lead to low fluoride concentrations. Accumulation of dissolved solutes in the rift floor aquifers as groundwater flows from the escarpments and evaporative enrichments from high temperature lead to high fluoride concentrations. These high concentrations of fluoride in water are known to cause serious health issues on animals and humans.

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Change history

  • 28 September 2018

    Author would like to make corrections in the original publication.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the University of Johannesburg Global Excellence and Stature (GES) program for the financial support to the MSc degree of PG and the National Research Foundation (NRF) Incentive Funding for Rated Researchers to HM, Grant No 91059 for providing financial support for this investigation. PG thanks Prof. Ch. Nyamai for his recommendation for the fellowship and advice on the study topic.

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  1. Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, 2006, South Africa

    Patrick Gevera & Hassina Mouri

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  1. Patrick Gevera
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Correspondence to Hassina Mouri.

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Gevera, P., Mouri, H. Natural occurrence of potentially harmful fluoride contamination in groundwater: an example from Nakuru County, the Kenyan Rift Valley. Environ Earth Sci 77, 365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7466-7

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Keywords

  • High fluoride in groundwater
  • PCA analysis
  • Nakuru
  • Kenyan Rift Valley