Geographic distribution of registered packaged water production in Ghana: implications for piped supplies, groundwater management and product transportation

Packaged water consumption has grown rapidly in urban areas of many low‐income and middle‐income countries, but particularly in Ghana. However, the sources of water used by this growing packaged water industry and the implications for water resource management and transport ‐related environmental impacts have not been described. This study aimed to assess the spatial distribution of regulated packaged water production in Ghana, both in relation to demand for natural mineral water and hydrogeological characteristics. A total of 764 addresses for premises licensed to produce packaged water from 2009 to 2015 were mapped and compared to regional sachet water consumption and examined beverage import/export data. We found evidence to suggest that packaged water is transported shorter distances in Ghana than in developed countries. Groundwater abstraction for packaged water is low relative to piped water production and domestic borehole abstraction nationally, but may be locally significant. For natural mineral water, producers should be able to address the most widespread water quality hazards (including high salinity, iron and nitrates) in aquifers used for production through reverse osmosis treatment. In future, packaged water producer surveys could be used to quantify unregulated production, volumes of piped versus groundwater abstracted and treatment processes used

Livestock ownership and microbial contamination of drinking-water: evidence from nationally representative household surveys in Ghana, Nepal and Bangladesh

Background: Current priorities for diarrhoeal disease prevention include use of sanitation and safe water. There have been few attempts to quantify the importance of animal faeces in drinking-water contamination, despite the presence of potentially water-borne zoonotic pathogens in animal faeces. Objectives: This study aimed to quantify the relationship between livestock ownership and point-of-consumption drinking-water contamination. Methods: Data from nationally representative household surveys in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Ghana, each with associated water quality assessments, were used. Multinomial regression adjusting for confounders was applied to assess the relationship between livestock ownership and the level of drinking-water contamination with E. coli. Results: Ownership of five or more large livestock (e.g. cattle) was significantly associated with drinking-water contamination in Ghana (RRR = 7.9, 95% CI = 1.6 to 38.9 for medium levels of contamination with 1-31cfu/100ml; RRR = 5.2, 95% CI = 1.1 – 24.5 for high levels of contamination with >31cfu/100ml) and Bangladesh (RRR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.3 – 4.5 for medium levels of contamination; non-significant for high levels of contamination). Ownership of eight or more poultry (chickens, guinea fowl, ducks or turkeys) was associated with drinking-water contamination in Bangladesh (RRR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.1 – 2.0 for medium levels of contamination, non-significant for high levels of contamination). Conclusions: These results suggest that livestock ownership is a significant risk factor for the contamination of drinking-water at the point of consumption. This indicates that addressing human sanitation without consideration of faecal contamination from livestock sources will not be sufficient to prevent drinking-water contamination

A spatiotemporal analysis of cattle herd movement in relation to drinking-water sources: implications for Cryptosporidium control in rural Kenya

Given the increasing evidence that domestic contact with livestock is a risk factor for child diarrhoea in low- and middle-income countries, there have been calls for greater quantification of human-livestock contact in such countries. This study aimed to quantify seasonality in cattle proximity to domestic water sources and household compounds and develop a preliminary landscape model of faecal deposition by cattle. A total of 120 cattle in smallholder herds in the Asembo area of Siaya County, Kenya, were tracked over 1 week in April 2018 to July 2018 and November 2018 to February 2019 using GPS tracking devices. Dung deposition and behaviour were observed among 33 cattle from these herds over 185.4 hours. Mean cattle home ranges were small at 3.78 km 2 and 5.85 km 2 in the wet and dry seasons, respectively. There were significant differences between seasons in home range size, distance travelled from the household, and time spent tethered, but not in the time spent at domestic water sources or home range overlap with other herds. On average, 0.76 dung deposition events/hour were observed, with higher frequency in bulls. Variation in cattle proximity to household compounds and water sources did not account for seasonal variation in child diarrhoea in this population. The preliminary landscape model of faecal deposition by cattle could be further developed to inform interventions for safe separation of livestock and people, such as fencing and separate water troughs. </p

MOESM1 of A cross-sectional ecological analysis of international and sub-national health inequalities in commercial geospatial resource availability

Additional file 1. Search strategy for identifying relevant commercial geospatial data resources and details of data resources excluded from the analysis