Paper water and sanitation eduardo pelembe

EDUARDO PELEMBE

Effects of poor sanitation on public health: Case of Quelimane city (Zambézia) 2014-2016

Eduardo Pelembe,b1

b MPH student at A politécnica University (CEPPA-ESAEN- ISHT), Quelimane –Mozambique with collaboration Nova University of Lisbon (Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Lisbon -Portugal

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

List of Acronyms WHO

World Health Organization

USA

United States of America

NPMC

Mozambique National Program of Malaria Control

MISAU

Mozambique Minister of Health

FIPAG

Fund for Water Asset Supply

CMCQ

Quelimane Municipal City Council

1

Corresponding author Tel.: +258 847326552 /+258 82 3477757 E-mail address: eduarpelembe@gmail.com /eduar.pele@yahoo.com.br (Eduardo Pelembe)

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

Abstract It is known that to sustain life, water is of primary importance. It can be offered to people with or without treatment, depending on the source of origin. This study aimed to survey the sanitary hygienic conditions of the urban sub district of Manhaua A and B informal neighborhood in Quelimane / ZambĂŠzia, from sociocultural questionnaires to households, the town council of Public health of the city Council of Quelimane city. The results showed that 100% of the urban sub population does not have access to treated water, and 50% are resistant to alternative treatments. However, the public health town council of the municipality has implemented actions in an attempt to educate the residents that living in neighborhood suburban about the problems arising from the untreated water.

Key words: Public health, sanitation, treated water, Quelimane, Manhaua A and B informal

neighborhood.

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

Introduction Poor sanitation

Most large African cities are overcrowded, due to urban attraction. Little controlled urban growth leads to poor management of solid and liquid wastes produced by cities. This leads to many problems of sanitation; the sanitation in these cities is generally dominated by selfpurification works. They often repress wastewater that trickles down in living quarter streets emitting strong foul odors (Strauss et al., 2000). Moreover, water intended for consumption are very often contaminated because of drinking water connection with the sewage (Schwartzbrod, 1992). This fact can cause high health risks and environmental pathologies arising from it are very important (WHO, 1992). They are mostly of diarrheal diseases (Carr, 2001). In addition, poor drainage of wastewater and storm water leads to the proliferation of ponds that are habitats of mosquito vectors of various diseases including malaria (WHO, 1985). Africa south of the Sahara is the most concerned in the sense that the majority (90%) of malaria deaths occur there, because of humidity climate taken by land ecology. In this part of the continent, it is now recognized that malaria is both a disease caused by poverty and a cause of poverty (WHO, 2001).

Mozambique is a country where malaria is endemic (WHO, 1985, 2000). According to the Mozambique National Program of Malaria Control (NPMC) supplied by Mozambique Malaria Strategic Plan 2012-2016, malaria is transmitted throughout the year with an increase during the rainy season (MISAU, 2012). In this country, there is resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to chloroquine (USA President’s Malaria Initiative, 2015).

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

Background of water and sanitation in Quelimane city Quelimane city, on the Cuåcua River, suffers from cyclical floods as a result of a high water table and heavy rains. This study developed an urban development strategy in informal neighborhood’s, where approximately half of populations in Quelimane city lives, with a special focus on water and sanitation conditions Figure 1. Map of Quelimane city.

Study site: Manhaua A and Manhua B neighborhood

Source: Courtesy of C.MC.Q, 2016

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

Cycle of the poor sanitation effects on public health Public in Manhaua A and B informal neighborhood 1 Characterization of Manhaua neighborhood

2 Environmental vulnerability

Lack of road infrastructure

4 Public health effects

Rain season

3 Poor sanitation Exposure

Poor water infrastructure

Raising cholera disease

(Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

Materials and methods Study Site One of the main challenges facing the Quelimane city is related to the lack of infrastructure collection and treatment of urban wastewater, where most of the same is drained into the river, contaminating ecosystems and aquifers, and being below the level sea, coupled with weak capacity of collection and treatment of solid waste creates the ideal setting for, in addition to the destruction of ecosystems, the outbreak of epidemic diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and malaria, especially in the rainy season. Another problem is the issue of access to clean water.

The current capacity of FIPAG (Fund for Water Asset Supply) is limited and in some neighborhoods the taps are long times without well water. At the time of completion of this study was underway to build new supply centers, the completion of which would allow greater coverage capacity, 24 hours a day, including not currently covered areas.

Methodology He was chosen a distant neighborhood of the city center and do not receive treated water from the public supply system. Thus, due to the characteristics, proximity and have already been carried out work of the same theme in 2014-2015, was chosen the suburban neighborhood called Manhaua in Quelimane city at ZambĂŠzia Province.

After the community setting, a visit took place to place in order to apply the questionnaires to families and watch the water catchment sites and sanitation. Questionnaires were administered 10 families randomly from a total of 50. Since families are distributed one beside the other, always grasp water from the same source. So we chose to disperse the questionnaire too spatially check the condition of the neighborhood.

It was obtained also by the CMCQ in the Town Council of Public health, in order to ascertain the health status of families and their relationship with poor sanitation and a range of information related to harvesting water, the release of sewage, and the most common diseases, among others.

The collected data were analyzed and are presented in the following section.

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Discussion After interviews with residents of the neighborhood, town council officials of Public health at the CMCQ, we obtained the following data:

Figure 1: Water supply

Water supply Série1

Série2 91%

7%

2%

Public network

Well/spring

Others

(Source: Eduardo Pelembe, 2016)

Figure 2: Use of alternative treatments Domestic water treatment

Título do Eixo

0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 Série2

Filtration 49%

Boil 1%

No treatment 50%

Série1 (Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

In figure 1, it appears that most of the water used comes directly from springs or wells devoid of any treatment. In addition, 50% of families consume water in the condition that it arrives at home, without any pretreatment (Figure 2). This is due to two factors related to the organoleptic properties (taste, odor, color) of water: ďƒź The first presupposes prior visual analysis as a determining factor for consumption, as if the water is clear and crystalline, there is no problem; ďƒź The second factor is the strength of chlorine increase in the water, claiming that their addition changes the taste and odor of water.

Figure 3: Sales of food in the local market with the sewage in Manhaua A and B informal neighborhood

Problems with water sewage near the fresh fruits in the local

market and lack of conservation water sources have been reported. 36% of families rule the open sewer (Figures 3 and 4) and 75% bury and / or burn garbage generated (Figure 5).

These inadequate conditions can contaminate both the water

course

as

the

soil,

as

well

as

release

to

atmosphere toxic substances derived from waste burning.

Thus,

the

contaminating

provision

of

microorganisms

substances

and

intensifies,

/

or

putting

at risk the health of the population.

(Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

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EDUARDO PELEMBE

Figure 4: Sewage Destination

Figure 5: Trash Destination

SĂŠrie1

9

Garbage disposal

Sanitary sewer destination

Public collection

SĂŠrie2

Burned or buried waste 43%

Clear sky

36%

75% 21% 21% 4% Sewer covers

Sewer

Clear sky

(Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

1

2

3

(Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

It is worth emphasizing that human wastes are discharged directly into the watercourse water in 100% of the interviewed households. The occurrence of diarrhea was reported in 33% of cases and 67% of households believe that the worms come from water contamination. These specific data of the local reality are consistent to those found in CMCQ (2014).

Recently the Public health Town Council in Quelimane implemented an awareness program about the importance of clean water, addressing relevant topics such as waterborne diseases and alternative treatment of water with chlorine solution 2.5%, acquired for free at secretary of the neighborhood. But because of population resistance, sodium hypochlorite bottles were discarded with expired validity.

EDUARDO PELEMBE

Figures 6: Old water tower

(Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

Figure 7: Current water tank

(Source: Adapted by Author, 2016)

There are two water tanks in the neighborhood: an old (Figure 6) and a new installed a few years ago (Figure 7) for further processing and distribution to the residents, however, until the date of completion of the work, the project had not yet started.

These same data can be compared with the earlier study by CMCQ in 2014 and with the data obtained by the Public Health town council in the CMCQ (2015), as in Table 1.

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Table1. Profile of data over the last 3 years

Questions Water consumption without pretreatment Water source (spring) Sewage disposal in the open or straight into the watercourse

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CMCQ -2014

Town Council of Public health (2015)

Study conducted (2016)

65%

49,6%

50%

93%

97,6%

100%

86%

79,2%

100%

It is observed that there is significant variability in the data, which may imply that there was no change satisfactory and / or effective in rural sanitation between the years 2014, 2015 and 2016.

EDUARDO PELEMBE

Conclusion

Although there is concern with the improvement of health conditions of the community resident in sub-urban areas, it was observed that the population is still divided about the appropriateness of their past customs through the generations, which makes it difficult the efficiency of government programs to improve quality of life. Therefore, most of the population can have access to treatment of water, even alternatively, but mechanisms of re-education and awareness of the importance of drinking water for human health should be improved in the community.

There is a time to demand that these conceptualization actions and corroborative be effective. So if is assumed that while the resident populations in sub-urban areas prefer the direct consumption of the spring, it is conserved from guidance from the CMCQ / ZambĂŠzia and that the alternative treatment is gradually adopted by the community, until the treated water supply public system is actually working on site.

Acknowledgements We thank officers of the Public Health town council of CMCQ and students of the Bachelors of Science in Environment Management of the 2015 sessions of the Pedagogic University of Mozambique (UP) – Quelimane Branch for their important contribution to the success of this research.

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Schwartzbrod L (1992). Virologie des eaux : Aspects épidémiologiques. Microbiologie-AlimentNutrition 10:213-222.

Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS) (1992). Evacuation des eaux de surface dans les communautés à faibles revenus. Organisation Mondiale de la Santé, Génève.

Carr R (2001). Excreta-related infections and the role of sanitation in the control of transmission.

Water Quality : Guidelines, Standards and Health.WHO. Ed. Frewtrell L. and Bartram J., London, UK. ISBN: 1 90022228, pp. 89-113.

United Nations (2006). World Urbanization Prospects : The 2005 Revision. United Nations, New York. pp. 210.

Ministry of Health of Mozambique, The Mozambique National Program of Malaria Control (NPMC). Mozambique Malaria Strategic Plan 2012-2016, Maputo, 2012.

USAID (2015). Mozambique President’s Malaria Initiative- Operational Plan in Mozambique.

Maputo, 2015.

Quelimane Municipal City Council (CMCQ) 2015, town council of Public Health and Sanitation through. Interventions report on access to water and sanitation in suburban neighborhoods of the city of Quelimane, 2015. Quelimane- Mozambique

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