Community monitoring of coliform pollution in Lake Tanganyika

Abstract

Conventional water quality monitoring has been done for decades in Lake Tanganyika, under different national and international programs. However, these projects utilized monitoring approaches, which were temporally limited, labour intensive and costly. This study examines the use of citizen science to monitor the dynamics of coliform concentrations in Lake Tanganyika as a complementary method to statutory and project-focused measurements. Persons in five coastal communities (Kibirizi, Ilagala, Karago, Ujiji and Gombe) were trained and monitored total coliforms, faecal coliforms and turbidity for one year on a monthly basis, in parallel with professional scientists. A standardized and calibrated Secchi tube was used at the same time to determine turbidity. Results indicate that total and faecal coliform concentrations determined by citizen scientists correlated well to those determined by professional scientists. Furthermore, citizen scientist-based turbidity values were shown to provide a potential indicator for high FC and TC concentrations. As a simple tiered approach to identify increased coliform loads, trained local citizen scientists could use low-cost turbidity measurements with follow up sampling and analysis for coliforms, to inform their communities and regulatory bodies of high risk conditions, as well as to validate local mitigation actions. By comparing the spatial and temporal dynamics of coliform concentrations to local conditions of infrastructure, population, precipitation and hydrology in the 15 sites (3 sites per community) over 12 months, potential drivers of coliform pollution in these communities were identified, largely related to precipitation dynamics and the land use.

Determine the Impact of Bacterial Contents on the Quality of Tap Water in Hawija District Desalination Station.

“…3.1 Bacteriological Properties: Presence of bacteria in drinking water considers one of the important indicators to identify the degree of contamination of all water sources with aerobic, facultative and nonaerobic bacteria and it was bioindicator for organic pollution [18] [19].…”

Citizen scientist monitoring accurately reveals nutrient pollution dynamics in Lake Tanganyika coastal waters

“…Turbidity is expected to decrease exponentially with distance from the river mouth in deep lakes (Giovanoli, 1990 ). The catchments of rivers are characterised by a range of anthropogenic activities (Moshi et al, 2022 ). Conversely, Gombe is located in a protected area and is surrounded by forest with only limited agricultural activities.…”

“…Monitoring has successfully been done in open waters to explore changes in water quality (Azanga, 2016 ; Bergamino et al, 2010 ; Cohen et al, 2005 ; Gao et al, 2018 ; Kalacska et al, 2017 ; Karamage et al, 2016 ; Mziray et al, 2018 ). However, limited monitoring has been done along the shoreline, where major inputs occur (Moshi et al, 2022 ). Although remote sensing and laboratory techniques offer potential, these approaches are expensive and require trained technical staff for sampling and analysis.…”

A preliminary evaluation of microbial water quality in the irrigation pond

“…Our results suggest that surface runoff, even after light rainfall (<2.5 mm of rain) is major driver which contributing diffuse pollution both in surface and bottom waters in the pond. This result is consistent with previous studies reported positive correlation between coliform bacteria and rainfall events at lake and pond ecosystems (An et al, 2002;Jeon et al, 2019;Moshi et al, 2022;Ramos-Ramírez et al, 2020;Staley et al, 2012;Staley et al, 2013;Stocker et al, 2019;Tryland et al, 2011;Xue et al, 2018). On the other hand, few studies reported no significant relationship between fecal indicator bacteria and rainfall (Nguyen et al, 2016;Sampson et al, 2006).…”