The foundation of our field efforts was a regional study of groundwater chemistry in Bénin which was derived from a combination of field measures and analyses of water samples returned to U.S. laboratories. This foundation determined that the region of interest was characterized by unique groundwater chemistry, thereby leading to a desire for high-frequency, local monitoring.

Personnel and monetary resources were insufficient to allow professionals to collect and analyze weekly water samples. Thus, to continue the research, low-technology field methods were identified for direct and surrogate measures of nitrate concentration. The methods were taught to local stakeholders to enable weekly monitoring. Although uranium has not yet been included in the weekly monitoring, research has expanded to colloidal material with the hopes of developing a technique for regular monitoring of uranium by local stakeholders. In parallel to these analytical techniques, sociological techniques have been utilized to fully understand and characterize the contamination problems and work towards remediation options.

Review of this research effort shows that it represents a viable model for field research in rural settings of developing countries. Specifically, reliance on a progression of analytical methods (POAM) ranging from standard lab methods performed by professionals to simple field techniques as applied by stakeholders with varying levels of expertise allows collection of high-frequency water quality data tied to a low-frequency, high precision data base.