Abstract:

Background: Solar water Disinfection (SODIS) is a low cost, simple and environmentally friendly household water treatment method that can be adopted as a strategy for reducing diarrheal prevalence among children under 5 years in areas that lack access to safe drinking water. Both field and laboratory studies have shown the efficacy of the SODIS method to deactivate waterborne pathogens. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Kiwempe urban slum, Kampala. A total of 12 (24 replicates) water samples were collected from four springs with three samples (6 replicates) from each spring at intervals of one week. One replicate for each source was preserved following the standard methods for examination of water and wastewater (APHA, 2012) and the (WHO, 2004) guidelines for drinking water sampling while the second replicate was exposed following the standard SODIS procedures (EAWANG) and later analyzed for total coliform and E.coli using the chromogenic medium technique. Results: The overall spring bacterial counts for T.coliform and E.coli were between (6.43 - 514.57) cfu/ml and (2.63 - 8.03) cfu/ml respectively while turbidity ranged between 0.32 & 0.35 NTU. The paired mean differences for T.coliform and E.coli across all sites were not statistically significant. Statistical significance was only observed for E.coli between site1 and 2 (0.02). SODIS significantly reduced T.coliform by 99.65% and E.coli by 99.999%. Conclusion: The SODIS treatment significantly reduced total coliforms and completely deactivated E.coli in all spring water samples. Therefore, SODIS method should be adopted by households as a low-cost water treatment method to reduce diarrheal prevalence among children under 5year in Kiwempe urban slum, Kampala, central Uganda.