Quality of rainwater harvesting for rural communities of Delta State, Nigeria

This paper assess the level of potability of rainwater samples harvested from catchments roofs in 6 rural communities of Delta State, Nigeria to achieve this goal a stratified sampling technique was adopted in the establishment of 90 sterilized cans into the 3 senatorial districts of Delta; on the basis of one can for thatch, aluminium, asbestos and corrugated iron sheets, and open surfaces. Six rural communities each were chosen from the three senatorial districts, making a total of 18 rural communities that were chosen for the study. The harvested rainwater samples were analysed with the most appropriate equipment and analytical techniques as recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) and federal ministry of environment in Nigeria. Kruskal-wallis H'test statistical techniques was employed to ascertain whether differences exist amongst the rainwater samples collected from thatch, aluminium, asbestos and corrugated iron roofing sheets, and open surfaces. The result revealed that most of physiochemical and biological characteristics of rainwater samples were generally below the WHO threshold, as such the rainwater characteristics showed satisfactory concentration in these rural communities. Thus, the rainwater from these rural communities should be harvested, stored for human consumption and for other uses by the inhabitants. But treatment is needed in terms of their pH, TSS, Fe and colour. Similarly, significant differences exist amongst the rainwater samples collected from the 5 roofing types, most especially low quality of rainwater were observed in thatch and asbestos roofing sheets. Thus, rainwater from these sources should be purified before consumption. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006.