Water
Nakuru County government has embarked on an exercise of mapping out the fluoride water belt to ensure water safety and safeguard residents against dental and skeletal ailments arising from high concentration of fluoride in boreholes.
According to a study conducted by the County’s Water and Environment department, most of the boreholes have fluoride levels way above the 1.5 milligram per litre recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The study established that fluoride levels range between 2.15 mg/Litre to as high as 6.5mg/Litre in the fifteen boreholes sampled during the analysis carried out at the Water Quality testing laboratory.
Water, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources County Executive Committee Member Nelson Maara said the County Government has embarked on research to establish the extent of the fluoride in water, and was collaborating with the Aquaya Institute under the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) to map out the fluoride water belt within Nakuru.
Dr Maara said the initiative aims to establish the levels of the mineral element present in various aquifers in Naivasha, Njoro, Nakuru Town West, Gilgil, Nakuru East and Bahati Sub-Counties, which have been singled out as having high concentrations of fluoride in Nakuru. The situation is said to be worse in Naivasha where boreholes are the main source of water.
Dr Maara, who was flanked by Chief Officer for Water and Sanitation, Engineer Margaret Kinyanjui spoke Thursday in Nakuru during the first quarterly meeting between senior staff from his department and a delegation from Aquaya institute led by Dr Biss Musengo.
The CECM indicated that the partnership will further promote water quality testing in rural areas and boost the operations of rural water supply systems in outsourcing water quality testing from professional laboratories.
He added that the program will also enhance water management through better data collection, the use of advanced technologies, and public awareness campaigns to optimize water use in agriculture and industry and to encourage sustainable water consumption habits.
Dr Maara reiterated that the County was committed to minimizing the impact of fluoride in all the sub-counties, by ensuring that its Water Service Providers were supplying “blended water” to residents which is within the recommended levels by WHO.
“We have two river sources, one emanating from Dundori where at the moment we get about four million litres per day and the other water from Malewa. The water from these rivers is channeled into our main treatment works where we do the blending with water from underground sources,” the CECM explained.
Nakuru Water and Sanitation Services Company (Nawassco) sources its water from 25 boreholes, these being one in Kiondo, eight in Kabatini, three in Nairobi Road, five in Baharini, and eight in Olobanitaa within the county. Dr Maara said the company serves a population of more than one million during daytime and approximately 530,000 people during the night.
The Naivasha Water and Sanitation Company Limited (Naivawasco) gets its raw water from 13 boreholes, located in six production sites. It serves a population of about 170, 000 out of the 198,444 people, according to the 2019 census. The CECM affirmed that the county administration was supporting initiatives towards developing water distribution networks that includes water kiosks fitted with defluoridation filters using local bone char technology.
Fluoride is a chemical compound that occurs naturally on the earth’s crust. It is formed during rock formation and is a chemical ion of chlorine. “All rocks have fluoride but the quantity differs, depending on where the rock is located. During water formation within the rocks, fluoride naturally becomes one of its components,” explained the Chief Officer for Water and Sanitation Engineer Kinyanjui.
However, the quantity of fluoride in the water depends on the saturation of the chemical compound in the rock or layer. So, some have very high concentration while others have only small amounts,” she added. Scientists say millions of Kenyans are at risk of serious bone defects and dental discolouration as a result of high levels of fluoride in their drinking water.
The risk is made worse by the fact that as the rest of the world moves to treated and piped water systems, more than half of Kenyans (56 per cent) still rely on underground water, which the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) defines as, among others, water fetched from wells and boreholes.
Data from Kenya Society for Fluoride Research further shows that 19 million Kenyans suffer from fluorosis, affecting the teeth and/or skeleton, depending on the length of time one has been exposed to water with a high concentration of fluoride, and their geographical location.
Three years ago, scientists conducted a study on the levels of fluoride in Gilgil and Njoro Sub-counties.
The research conducted by Patrick Kirita Gevera and Hassina Mouri both of Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg and Godfrey Maronga from Department of Restorative Dentistry, University of Western Cape, sampled dental patients at St. Mary’s Hospital-Gilgil and Egerton University-Njoro Dental Clinic.
The findings were startling with the prevalence of patients with dental fluorosis who visited St. Mary’s Hospital-Gilgil for dental health care hitting 86 percent, where 54percent of the patients suffered from mild to moderate dental fluorosis.
Thirty-two percent had severe dental fluorosis, whereas the prevalence of dental fluorosis in patients below the age of 14 years was higher at 92 percent than in older patients which the study established stood at 85.6 percent. Dental fluorosis mainly affects children with developing teeth, although it affects adults as well.
According to the WHO, ingestion of excess fluoride, most commonly in drinking water, can cause fluorosis which affects the teeth and bones. “Moderate amounts lead to dental effects, but long-term ingestion of large amounts of fluoride can lead to potentially severe skeletal problems,” says the WHO.
The WHO says dental effects of fluorosis develop much earlier than the skeletal effects in people who have been exposed to large amounts of fluoride. “Clinical dental fluorosis is characterized by staining and pitting of the teeth. In more severe cases all the enamel may be damaged,” says the WHO.
The global health body however adds that fluoride may not be the only cause of dental enamel defects. “Enamel opacities similar to dental fluorosis are associated with other conditions, such as malnutrition with deficiency of vitamins D and A or a low protein-energy diet. Ingestion of fluoride after six years of age will not cause dental fluorosis,” states the WHO.