TY - JOUR
T1 - An evolving choice in a diverse water market
T2 - A quality comparison of sachet water with community and household water sources in Ghana
AU - Guzmán, Danice
AU - Stoler, Justin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the water-testing team in Ghana, led by Charles Yeboah and Lydia Mosi of BCAN Consult, for the timely completion of data collection and water sample testing work, and Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng, Sr. analyst/water specialist, for his technical assistance and quality control of the water-testing process. We would also like to thank Ranti Olatunji-Ojelabi, executive director of Panafields, and her staff for timely and efficient completion of the household survey data collection. We also thank the water sample collectors and the many enumerators from both teams who collected data during the survey; Millennium Challenge Corporation and Millennium Development Authority officials in Ghana who enabled this research under MCC-13-BPA-0067; and principal investigator Juan Carlos Guzmán for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank the community members in Ghana for their willingness to participate in the interviews and water-testing process.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Packaged water, particularly bagged sachet water, has become an important drinking water source in West Africa as local governments struggle to provide safe drinking water supplies. In Ghana, sachet water has become an important primary water source in urban centers, and a growing literature has explored various dimensions of this industry, including product quality. There is very little data on sachet water quality outside of large urban centers, where smaller markets often mean less producer competition and less government regulation. This study analyzes the microbiological quality of sachet water alongside samples of other common water sources at point-of-collection (POC) and point-of-use (POU) in 42 rural, peri-urban, and small-town Ghanaian communities using the IDEXX Colilert® 18 (Westbrook, ME). Levels of coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli detected in sachet water samples were statistically and significantly lower than levels detected in all other water sources at POU, including public taps and standpipes, and statistically similar or significantly lower at POC. In diverse waterscapes where households regularly patch together their water supply from different sources, sachet water appears to be an evolving alternative for safe drinking water despite many caveats, including higher unit costs and limited opportunities to recycle the plastic packaging.
AB - Packaged water, particularly bagged sachet water, has become an important drinking water source in West Africa as local governments struggle to provide safe drinking water supplies. In Ghana, sachet water has become an important primary water source in urban centers, and a growing literature has explored various dimensions of this industry, including product quality. There is very little data on sachet water quality outside of large urban centers, where smaller markets often mean less producer competition and less government regulation. This study analyzes the microbiological quality of sachet water alongside samples of other common water sources at point-of-collection (POC) and point-of-use (POU) in 42 rural, peri-urban, and small-town Ghanaian communities using the IDEXX Colilert® 18 (Westbrook, ME). Levels of coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli detected in sachet water samples were statistically and significantly lower than levels detected in all other water sources at POU, including public taps and standpipes, and statistically similar or significantly lower at POC. In diverse waterscapes where households regularly patch together their water supply from different sources, sachet water appears to be an evolving alternative for safe drinking water despite many caveats, including higher unit costs and limited opportunities to recycle the plastic packaging.
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U2 - 10.4269/ajtmh.17-0804
DO - 10.4269/ajtmh.17-0804
M3 - Article
C2 - 29893206
AN - SCOPUS:85051062844
VL - 99
SP - 526
EP - 533
JO - American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
JF - American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
SN - 0002-9637
IS - 2
ER -