More than 25 % of Tanzanian depends on groundwater as the main source of water for drinking, irrigation and industrial activities. The current trend of land use may lead to groundwater contamination and thus increasing risks associated with the usage of contaminated water. Nitrate is one of the contaminants resulting largely from anthropogenic activities that may find its way to the aquifers and thus threatening the quality of groundwater.

BackgroundFor many years social economic status has been used as an indicator to characterize malaria treatment seeking behaviors of communities and their adherence to malaria control programs. The present study was therefore conducted to assess the influence of household social economic status, knowledge, attitude and practice on treatment seeking behaviors, distance to health facilities and vector control measures in the Lower Moshi area, northern Tanzania.MethodsA cross-sectional household survey was carried out, a quantitative method was used to collect information from the households, and the household socio-economic status was estimated by employing a household asset-based approach. The structured questionnaire also collected information on malaria knowledge, attitudes and treatment seeking behaviors.ResultsA total of 197 (68.8% were female) household heads were interviewed. Distance to the health centers influenced malaria treatment seeking behaviors especially for children (P = 0.001) and the number of visits to the health facilities made by the household members (P = 0.001). The head of the households' level of education had an influence on bed-net retreatment (P < 0.001) and acceptability of larval control programmes (P <0.001). Similarly, a significant association was observed between bed-net retreatment, larval control and occupation of the head of the household .ConclusionDistance to the health centre influenced malaria treatment seeking behaviors, and the number of visits made by the household members. In addition, the education level of the household heads played a role in understanding and in the selection of malaria interventions for the households. Increasing the number of health facilities close to rural areas will improve malaria treatment seeking behavior, case management and hence reduce malaria-associated morbidities, especially in high risk groups.

The quality of the groundwater along the slopes of Mount Meru, Tanzania, is poorly understood. Water access and sanitation practices may pose health risks to communities. This study was undertaken to assess the sources, abundance and seasonal variation of coliform bacteria in groundwater and factors contributing to such variations along slopes of Mount Meru, Tanzania. Water samples collected from 67 randomly selected water sources (springs, shallow wells which ranged from 4 to 35 m deep and Boreholes above 40 m deep) during dry and wet seasons were analysed for total coliform (TC), faecal coliform (FC), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and faecal streptococci (FS), using the membrane filtration method. The fraction of springs and shallow wells contaminated was generally higher compared to the fraction of boreholes. The highest TC, FC, E. coli and FS counts were significantly higher (p < 0.05) during the wet than the dry season owing to rising of water table and leaching during rainy season. Water sources that were located within 10 m of pit latrines had the highest coliform counts relative to those located beyond 10 m. Similarly, the highest coliform counts were observed in all shallow wells that (i) had low well head above the ground, (ii) were not covered, (iii) had casing materials which were not concrete and (iv) utilised traditional pumping (bucket/pulley) systems. This was due to contaminated storm water access, inoculation of microbes by exposed buckets and inefficiency of the casing material. Furthermore, the counts decreased with depths of boreholes and shallow wells during the two seasons probably due to retention and die-off. It is recommended that groundwater in this area be treated against coliform contamination prior to utilisation as portable water.