Study Sites
Groundwater 2030 is looking at a case study African city in Kenya to better understand urban groundwater quality, the pattern of people’s exposure to contaminated groundwater and how this might change in the future.
Kisumu in Kenya
Map of Kisumu in Western Kenya
Kisumu is a city situated near Lake Victoria in western Kenya. The groundwater sources of Kisumu that we investigated are in two quite well established neighbourhoods of the suburbs of Kisumu, namely Manyatta and Migosi. Our fieldwork is mostly based around these suburbs knowing these to be areas where many people use shallow hand-dug wells.
Manyatta and Migosi
Map of latrine density and nitrate contamination in part of Kisumu
We chose Manyatta and Migosi as our study sites because we have historic data about wells and groundwater quality for these areas.
Population density is quite high in both the sites, particularly Manyatta, and pit latrines are also quite commonly used. Piped water is available in parts of Manyatta and Migosi, but it is not available to everyone and sometimes there are disruptions to the flow of piped water.
Initially we carried out pilot activities at these sites to help us understand urban groundwater quality in the area and the extent to which the inhabitants of Kisumu are affected by exposure to contaminated groundwater.