Abstract
Water quality surveillance systems are hardly applied in rural contexts. To provide a comprehensive analysis of drinking-water quality in two rural settlements in the Colombian Caribbean drinking-water samples were collected and analyzed from storage containers in 42 homes. The results of physical, chemical, and microbiological analyses of the water samples were compared with values established by the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, and Colombian regulations. The Kruskal–Wallis test was applied to compare each parameter for supply source, season (rainy or dry), settlement, and types of storage. Drinking-water Quality Risk Index (IRCA) was calculated for each of the samples. The water supply sources were varied: well (33.3%), rainwater (23.8%), artificial pond (23.8%), and river (19.0%). One-hundred percent of the samples contained Escherichia coli and total coliforms. The IRCA varied between 57.3 and 83.9, with a median of 72.9. Eighty-eight percent of the samples exhibited high risk levels (35.1 < IRCA < 80.0) and 12% were unsanitary (80.1 < IRCA < 100.0). Artificial pond water was the source of supply with the worst IRCA (83.79). Drinking water in the El Cascajo and La Delfina settlements does not meet international and national drinking-water standards. A change is required whereby monitoring and quality control policies take into account the reality of rural settings.
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Data availability
Dataset (Galezzo & Rodríguez, 2020).
Notes
The Drinking-water Quality Control and Protection System only applies to persons or companies that supply or distribute drinking water.
An artificial pond is an open-air deposit for rainwater.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the communities of the settlements of El Cascajo and La Delfina who kindly decided to participate in the study. We also thank Melissa Pineda, Yefrail Orozco, and Cristian Núñez, who helped collect samples.
Funding
Financial support was provided by the Government of the Department of Cesar through the Administrative Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Colciencias) through Call 681 of 2014.
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MAGM wrote the research proposal, conducted the data analysis, did the field work, interpreted the results, and wrote the initial manuscript. MSRS reviewed and approved the research proposal, results, and conclusion and commented and contributed to drafting the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The Research Ethics Committee at Universidad de los Andes approved the study under Act No. 965 of October 30, 2017.
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Informed consent was read out to the respondents before the water samples were collected.
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Highlights
• People in El Cascajo y La Delfina are forced to consume unsafe water due to the lack of supply systems.
• The physicochemical parameters that presented the highest degree of non-compliance with allowable values were turbidity, iron, and lead.
• The presence of Escherichia coli in 100% of samples indicates fecal contamination.
• It is important to evaluate decentralization options of water quality surveillance.
• The colombian government must redesign applicable policies for drinking water monitoring and control in rural areas.
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Galezzo, MA., Rodríguez Susa, M. The challenges of monitoring and controlling drinking-water quality in dispersed rural areas: a case study based on two settlements in the Colombian Caribbean. Environ Monit Assess 193, 373 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09138-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09138-3