Boreholes in Dodowa polluted - Study

A water and sanitation baseline study in Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region has established that all wells and boreholes in the community contain bacteria from human and animals faeces, making it unsafe for human consumption.

The survey also found that more than 70 per cent of the hand-dug wells were sited within 10 metres of latrines, waste dumps and unlined wastewater drains.

The findings were disseminated at a workshop to share the outcome of a five-year project which assessed the quality of water from wells and boreholes in Dodowa.

The survey was a joint project by the Department of Civil Engineering and the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the Central University, with support from Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor (UPGro), an international research programme funded by the UK, and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.

The workshop, organised in collaboration with the Resource Centre Network (RCN), brought together about 100 participants drawn from Dodowa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other stakeholders in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Findings

Sharing the findings, the Head of the Civil Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University, Prof. Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng, said the researchers looked at the pollution risk assessment of 57 wells in the community and sampled water from them.

The samples, which were tested in the field laboratories or transported to The Netherlands, indicated that 27 per cent of the dug-out wells were positive for rotavirus, while 55 per cent had adenovirus, with other pathogens and pollutants also identified.

"What we found in Dodowa can be said to be a nationwide thing," he said and explained that the findings and recommendations would help improve the quality of water from boreholes and wells across the nation.

Polluted boreholes

A Senior Lecturer at the Civil Engineering Department of the Central University, Dr George Lutterodt, who was a co-investigator in the survey, said although two per cent of the people sampled claimed they drank water directly from the polluted boreholes or wells, it was found that the water from such sources were mainly used for cooking, washing and bathing.

“The irregular flow of water from the Ghana Water Company Limited forces the people to rely on the polluted water,” he said.

Dr Lutterodt added that the depths of the boreholes and wells sampled were less than a metre to seven metres and the water table was very close to the surface, just like in all communities in the southern part of the country.

Apart from the poor quality of well water, Dr Lutterodt said, it was also found that rivers in the community were also polluted, while littering and dumping of refuse and open defecation were also prevalent.

The report concluded that every household must own a well-built toilet facility, have access to clean, potable water and practise good sanitation.