From the field – Summer 2018: Water and sanitation challenges in Zanzibar
There is no way to know where a project will go when it gets to Zanzibar. The water quality project started this summer focusing on collecting data about lead to create a device to test for it in wells. However, our research into lead contamination in water pivoted, providing us with the opportunity to explore and conduct a needs assessment on the biological contamination of water sources, a more pressing public health need in Zanzibar. What we’ve found so far is a complicated water system with problems that overlap and feed off each other. The infrastructure itself is so insufficient that a report a hundred years ago argued to replace it. The department in charge of water quality is too understaffed and under-resourced to comprehensively test, and rapid population growth and the tourism industry are straining the underground aquifers and causing saltwater intrusion. Additionally, problems with sewage disposal inevitably feed into biological water quality problems. By stepping back and listening to the concerns from multiple perspectives, we’re starting to get a much clearer picture of the water quality challenges here and what we could do to try to help.
