Overview

Water and sanitation-related diseases in the River Njoro watershed, particularly diarrhea, pose a development burden on poor rural agricultural households with implications for water supply planning, environmental management, and development policy. Yet little is known quantitatively regarding interactions among water supply availability, watershed and resource management practices, and household behaviors in contributing to disease burdens in order to develop effective policies and interventions for improved water supply conditions and public health at the watershed scale. The SUMAWA project has collected data on biophysical conditions, water pollution and water quality, environmental human health, socio economics, and household water supply and sanitation-related access and practices in the River Njoro watershed. This research will develop an integrated data set to characterize temporal and spatial variations in domestic water supply, sanitation and water consumption patterns across the watershed, and analyze relationships with patterns of water and sanitation-related diseases in the Njoro Watershed. Implications of interactions between water supply development and access, water pollution conditions and sources, and household water use behavior for reducing water and sanitation-related disease burdens in the Njoro watershed will be explored in the context of sustainable and integrated water resources management, to identify alternative water supply development and management strategies at multiple scales.