A paper presented by D. Endamana, I.M. Kengne, J. Gockowski, J. Nya, D. Wandji, J. Nyemeck, N. N. Soua J. N. Bakwowi on 21-23 January 2003, Muldersdrift, South Africa.

Studies were conducted in three urban and two peri-urban sites in Yaounde to highlight the importance of food production in urban and peri-urban settings and the associated public health hazards. In each site, the physico-chemical, microbiological and parasitological properties of irrigation water were analysed and a socio-economic survey of urban and peri-urban agriculturalists conducted. The results show that water used for crop irrigation in the urban domain exceeds WHO bacterial and parasitic standards for unrestricted crop irrigation, in contrast to the peri-urban domain which met the standards. In the urban area, faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci are > 103 bacteria/100 ml and at least 33 % of the samples contained helminth eggs and cysts of protozoa. These wastewaters constitute therefore a potential source of health risk both for farmers of and consumers of the food produced in these milieus. Slightly less than half of the farmers interviewed attributed a health problem to their working environment. Among these farmers malaria, skin ulcers, bilharzia, typhoid fever and diarrhoea were the most frequently cited illnesses and the health expenses attributed to associate illness were estimated at approximately 62 Euros per year for each farmer. Furthermore, approximately 11 days of work are lost per year due to these illnesses. [authors abstract]