WATER QUALITY AND ENDANGERED IMPALAS: CASE STUDY FOR KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE

A population of endangered Sitatunga antelope live in a free-range environment at the Impala Sanctuary in Kisumu, Kenya. The park, gazetted in 1992 by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), continues to be negatively impacted by population growth and the building of luxury hotels adjacent to park boundaries. KWS park officials suspected that increased demands on outdated sewage infrastructure have caused animal drinking water sources to become contaminated. Through three consecutive years of site assessments, data collection, and analysis we determined that most of the open water sources for the endangered Sitatunga antelopes are severely contaminated. Field testing for eight physical and chemical parameters (pH. dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, fecal coliform, biological oxygen on demand, turbidity, and temperature) allowed us to calculate a water quality index value for each of the sample sites (Mitchell and Williams, 2000; Brown et al., 1970). The WQI is a unit less number ranging from 1 to 100 that reflects the overall health of a system by assigning weighted values to the aforementioned parameters. A higher WQI number is indicative of better water quality (100-90 is deemed excellent water quality, for example). We found that the water quality ranked from 46 to 57% (bad to medium). Moreover, only two of the six sample sites met the minimum criteria determined by numerous livestock researchers (Adams et al., 1995; Beede, D.K. 2006; Linn and Raeth-Knight, 2010) for fecal coliforms, nitrates, phosphates, and turbidity. The remaining four sites were exponentially contaminated with some levels reaching 10X recommended values for water health. Temporary changes have been made within the park to supply clean drinking water options for free roaming animals within the park boundaries.