Abstract:
Rainwater harvesting is one of the reliable water sources in the rural areas because of lack of access to the central water supply. The high dependence on harvested rainwater by residents of rural areas had necessitated the assessment of the practice of rainwater harvesting in rural areas so that best practices can be recommended where they get it wrong. Rainwater samples were collected from rainwater harvesting systems in 25 households in Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area (LGA) of Enugu state. In all, 25 rainwater samples were collected and analysed for temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity, nitrates, dissolved oxygen (DO), sulphates, chloride, total alkalinity, bicarbonate, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, total iron, chromium, arsenic, zinc, lead, cadmium, E.coli and enterococci according to standard procedures. In addition, sanitary survey was carried out in 100 households. There was consistency in the results of the assessment with respect to those reported by other studies with the exception of the absence of lead and cadmium. As expected, 72% of the tested samples had pH value below that of the drinking water guidelines (WHO, NSDWQ, NAFDAC and EPA) while other physicochemical parameters were well below the guidelines. Also, 76% and 48% of the samples tested positive to E.coli and enterococci respectively. The water quality index (WQI) results show an average value of 55.25 (marginal) which indicates that the harvested rainwater is unsuitable for drinking but can be used for other domestic purposes such as cooking, bathing and laundry. Statistical analysis such as principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA) and binary logistic regression were carried out to investigate the sources of contaminant in the harvested rainwater. The results show that proper maintenance of the rainwater harvesting system, selection of appropriate catchment and storage materials and disinfection of stored rainwater can help to improve the quality of rainwater.
