Millennium Development Goal Seven, Target 7C; Achievements and Barriers in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-arid Land
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Date
2014Author
Osman, Abdi D
Robinson, Priscilla
Mwanthi, Mutuku
Lin, Vivian
Jackson, Darryl
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Introduction: Wajir County is part of Kenya’s arid land in North Eastern Kenya and has a population of
approximately 662,000 (2009 census). The County’s main water supply is from underground shallow wells, and for
long, sanitation options have been restricted to open defection and bucket latrines due to susceptibility of the shallow
aquifer to contamination. This is assessed against Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target achievements.
Objectives: To describe the trends of diarrhoeal and other waterborne diseases and to ultimately measure MDG
targets performance.
Methods: Combined study designs were employed to investigate the existence of an association between water
quality and water borne diseases in children. Data were entered into a database and analysed in Stata 10 software.
Results: Data were obtained using; survey questionnaires from 44 households, water samples from 46 shallow wells
and stool samples from 4 children. The study indicated 27% prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases in children, presence
of micro-organisms and high levels of properties and chemicals in the water, notably lead.
Discussion and conclusion: Although all the water samples were grossly contaminated, the study does not provide
evidence for the water-borne diseases in children being linked to local groundwater quality due to poor performance
of our stool sample collection. There are concerns about the high concentrations of lead in the water with
uncertainties of its cause. MDG targets are unlikely in 2015.
Keywords: contamination, diarrhoeal diseases, groundwater, MDG, Wajir
Citation
Osman, A. D., Robinson, P., Mwanthi, M., Lin, V., & Jackson, D. (2014). Millennium Development Goal Seven, Target 7C; Achievements and Barriers in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-arid Land. World Journal of Social Science, 1(1), p48.Publisher
University of Nairobi
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10385]