Abstract:
The majority of global rural communities, including
South Africa, rely on untreated surface water for human consumption.
The consumption arises partly from the local municipalities’ erratic
supply of treated drinking water to its residents. Here we report on the
microbial load of surface water sources and after simple water
treatment using hand dug wells in Vhembe District, South Africa. The
results of the pH were in the range 6.90 to 8.86 with the water
temperature ranging from 16 to 25 ºC. The turbidity values were in the
range 2.53 to 393.67 NTU which shows problem of soil erosion,
rainfall runoff and wastewater discharge by upstream sewage works.
The faecal coliform counts varied between 0 cfu/100 ml to > 300
cfu/100 ml, E. coli counts varied between 0 cfu/100ml and >300
cfu/100 ml, and faecal Streptococci counts between 1.5 cfu/100 ml to
>300 cfu/100 ml. The microbial load in the hand dug wells was
considerably lower than that of the Nandoni reservoir (due to soil
filtering capacity). The existence of a high microbial load that
exceeded acceptable regulatory guidelines render these water sources
unsafe for human consumption. Physical conditions, such as water
temperature, also enable bacterial propagation. Thus, the advent of
climate change and especially the warming of surface waters may
exacerbate the current condition of the use of untreated surface water
sources.
