Groundwater provides a vital source of drinking water for rural communities in many parts of Africa, particularly in the dry season when there are few safe alternative sources. This paper summarises results from a study (n=428) assessing dry season water quality, both microbiological and inorganic chemistry, in handpump equipped boreholes (HPB's) across the Ethiopia Highlands (n=142), Malawi (n=162) and Uganda (n=124) using a stratified, randomised sampling design. This study seeks to examine general water quality by randomly sampling rural groundwater supplies across larger areas with different geology and climate. The majority, 72%, of HPBs surveyed provide good quality dry season drinking water as defined by WHO drinking water quality criteria. Within this overall picture, the most notable constraints were from thermotolerant coliforms (TTCs), which exceeded the WHO drinking water guideline of zero colony forming units (cfu/100 mL) in 21% of sites (range 0-626 cfu/100 mL). TTC contamination was found to have a significant and positive correlation with annual average rainfall (ρ=0.2, p=0.00003). Across all three countries, WHO health based chemical drinking water quality values were exceeded at 9% of sites and were found for manganese (4%), fluoride (2.6%) and nitrate (2.5%); arsenic concentrations were below the guideline value of 10 μg/L (range 400 μg/L) found in drinking water sources in Uganda challenges the decision by WHO not to formalise a health-based guideline for Mn. While the overall level of microbiological contamination from HPBs is low, results from this study strongly suggest that at a national and regional level, microbiological contamination rather than chemical contamination will provide a greater barrier to achieving targets set for improved drinking water quality under the UN-SDG 6. Efforts should be made to ensure that boreholes are properly sited and constructed effectively to reduce pathogen contamination.

中文翻译：

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非洲农村手泵钻孔的饮用水质量

地下水为非洲许多地区的农村社区提供了重要的饮用水源，尤其是在几乎没有安全替代来源的旱季。本文总结了一项研究 (n=428) 的结果，该研究评估了埃塞俄比亚高地 (n=142)、马拉维 (n=162) 和乌干达 (n=162) 的配备手泵的钻孔 (HPB) 中的旱季水质，包括微生物和无机化学。 n=124) 使用分层随机抽样设计。本研究旨在通过对具有不同地质和气候的较大区域的农村地下水供应进行随机抽样来检查总体水质。大多数（72%）接受调查的 HPB 提供世卫组织饮用水质量标准定义的优质旱季饮用水。在这个整体画面中，最显着的限制来自耐热大肠菌群 (TTC)，其在 21% 的地点（范围 0-626 cfu/100 mL）中超过了世界卫生组织关于零菌落形成单位 (cfu/100 mL) 的饮用水指南。发现 TTC 污染与年平均降雨量呈显着正相关（ρ=0.2，p=0.00003）。在所有三个国家中，9% 的地点超过了世卫组织基于健康的化学饮用水质量值，发现锰（4%）、氟化物（2.6%）和硝酸盐（2.5%）；乌干达饮用水源中的砷浓度低于指导值 10 微克/升（范围 400 微克/升），这对世卫组织不正式制定基于健康的锰指导方针的决定提出了挑战。虽然 HPB 的微生物污染总体水平较低，