Neji |
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| Water
System |
Neji
is a Kumiai Indian community water system (community), serving 15
families (service connections) with a population of approximately 60. The community is located south of Tecate in Baja California,
Mexico. The community is
composed of two polygons, one covering 21,036 acres and the other 7603
acres. Small, remote
ranches are scattered throughout the territory.
Each ranch has its own water supply, which source varies from
springs, streams and hand dug wells.
We
visited two typical ranches, Rancho Encino Solo and Ranchito. Rancho Encino Solo has two water sources, a stream that flows
near the homestead and also a spring.
Residents gather water from the spring via ˝- inch polybutylene
tubing delivered via gravity to the home for drinking and domestic
purposes. They use the
stream water supply for agricultural purposes. Ranchito
has a hand dug well, approximately 4 feet square, covered loosely with
plywood, with a gasoline pump that is used to pump the water from the
well to the house, into a 55-gallon
drum for storage and a smaller vessel for drinking water.
The hand dug well is located downstream of the house and is
adjacent to a cattle herding area.
The water produced by the spring or well is not
treated or filtered. This
community is extremely remote and does not have electricity.
The ranches are also several kilometers apart from one another. The following table is a brief summary of water
quality monitoring of the water system.
na-not analyzed
The following table * NOTE: Microbiological data generated by the JA JAN Coalition with the assistance of CUNA, Aqualink, and trained community members The
Rancho Encino Solo water system spring source is contaminated with high
levels of Total Coliform and E. coli bacteria.
The Ranchito hand dug well also has high levels of Total Coliform
and E. coli bacteria and has elevated levels of nitrate.
Analytical testing and a sanitary survey have determined that the
continuing cause of the contamination appears to stem from the water
sources. The hand dug well
does not have good source protection and is in close proximity to the
cattle herding area which may be directly related to the nitrate
contamination. Nitrate
is used in fertilizer and is found in sewage and wastes from human
and/or farm animals and generally gets into drinking water from those
activities. Excessive
levels of nitrate in drinking water have caused serious illness and
sometimes death in infants less than six months of age.
The serious illness in infants is caused because nitrate is
converted to nitrite in the body. Nitrite interferes with the oxygen carrying capacity of the
child’s blood. This is an
acute disease in that symptoms can develop rapidly in infants. The drinking water standard is set at 10 parts per million
nitrate as nitrogen. The
level from the well water was 7.5 ppm nitrate as nitrogen, which is
close to the standard. This
well should be monitored at least once every six months to ensure that
the nitrate level stays below 10ppm. There
is no fencing around the spring source; however, because the spring is
on the hillside it is not accessible to livestock contamination.
Although it is covered with a small sheet of corrugated steel it may be
accessible to birds and other small animals. The
water produced by the spring and well is not treated or filtered.
Drinking water with coliform and E. coli bacteria is a health
risk and could cause serious illness.
Water System Improvement Recommendations Because the E. coli bacteria results are high from the spring and the hand dug wells, filtration is necessary. It is recommended that each house construct a slow sand filtration system for treatment of the spring water. This would greatly reduce the bacteria and provide safer drinking water.
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