Assessment of wastewater quality for use in cropproduction: Case studies of Egerton University andNakuru wastewater stabilization ponds

摘要

Total removal of pathogens in wastewater for agricultural irrigation is not absolutely necessary for theproduction of clean produce since other risk reduction measures such as hygienic handling of produceand wastewater during irrigation reduce pathogen concentrations significantly. Most of the foodcontamination by pathogens do not emanate from the fields but rather during their transportation andhandling as evidenced from a market survey conducted in Nakuru markets. Vegetables from the marketshowed high levels of contamination as compared to those grown using wastewater from the trial plot.Though the quality of effluent from the wastewater stabilization ponds showed that it was not suitable forcrop production in terms of faecal coliforms and helminths eggs according to WHO guidelines on safere-use of wastewater for agriculture, the vegetables grown showed almost similar levels of pathogenscontamination as the produce in the market.