How Much Will It Cost To Monitor Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Abstract

Microbial water quality monitoring is crucial for managing water resources and protecting public health. However, institutional testing activities in sub-Saharan Africa are currently limited. Because the economics of water quality testing are poorly understood, the extent to which cost may be a barrier to monitoring in different settings is unclear. This study used cost data from 18 African monitoring institutions (piped water suppliers and health surveillance agencies in six countries) and estimates of water supply type coverage from 15 countries to assess the annual financial requirements for microbial water testing at both national and regional levels, using World Health Organization recommendations for sampling frequency. We found that a microbial water quality test costs 21.0 ± 11.3 USD, on average, including consumables, equipment, labor, and logistics, which is higher than previously calculated. Our annual cost estimates for microbial monitoring of piped supplies and improved point sources ranged between 8 000 USD for Equatorial Guinea and 1.9 million USD for Ethiopia, depending primarily on the population served but also on the distribution of piped water system sizes. A comparison with current national water and sanitation budgets showed that the cost of implementing prescribed testing levels represents a relatively modest proportion of existing budgets (<2%). At the regional level, we estimated that monitoring the microbial quality of all improved water sources in sub-Saharan Africa would cost 16.0 million USD per year, which is minimal in comparison to the projected annual capital costs of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 of safe water for all (14.8 billion USD).

Fieldwork-based determination of design priorities for point-of-use drinking water quality sensors for use in resource-limited environments

“…Conversely, chemical contamination is generally localized due to the heterogeneity of its geogenic and anthropogenic causes [60][61][62][63][64]. Furthermore, we assumed that the most likely use cases for improved point-of-use testing would be as part of government-mandated water quality testing, either for routine testing [65][66][67][68] or for additional testing such as the investigation of outbreaks [69] or exposure pathways [70], as the government remains the largest custodian of water as a public good in India [71].…”

Making Rainwater Harvesting a Key Solution for Water Management: The Universality of the Kilimanjaro Concept

“…In the EARV regions and sub-Saharan-Africa (SSA) in general, although standards exist, accredited laboratories to monitor the quality of drinking water are very limited [64,65]. Monitoring water quality is the cornerstone for safe drinking water provision [64][65][66][67][68]. In this regard, communities in SSA including the EARV can learn lessons on drinking water quality monitoring and system maintenance from their Chinese counterparts.…”

Capacity challenges in water quality monitoring: understanding the role of human development

“…staff retention, knowledge, motivation and leadership), funding of monitoring activities and the availability of technical equipment (e.g. Beck et al 2010;Behmel et al 2016;Delaire et al 2017;Ferrero et al 2019;Irvine et al 2016;Peletz et al 2018;Rahman et al 2011;Steynberg 2002;. Most of these water quality monitoring studies focus, however, on specific uses such as drinking water (e.g.…”

“…Ferrero et al 2019;Steynberg 2002) or specific regions such as Africa (e.g. Delaire et al 2017;Peletz et al 2018), Europe (Beck et al 2010;Poikane et al 2015), developing countries in general (Rahman et al 2011) or the tropics (Irvine et al 2016).…”