Abstract
Water is is one of the most important resource for all living organisms including flora and fauna. Therefore, reliable, accessible, adequate, clean, acceptable, and safe drinking water supply must be available to various users. For this reason, most countries including South Africa have declared access to clean and safe drinking water as a fundamental human right and therefore, essential steps towards improving its quality are a necessity. Notwithstanding these facts, signs of inequalities with respect to access to safe drinking water in the world. For example, some countries have insufficient freshwater (water scarcity) while in other countries have abundant freshwater accessibility is the problem. Furthermore, the increasing population and industrializations demand freshwater but the water resources remain constant and sometimes its quality is not suitable for consumption. In view of the above the main aim of this study was to assess the physicochemical and bacteriological quality of borehole and spring water around Intsika Yethu Local Municipality, identify those constituents whose concentrations are high compared to the maximum permissible level on the SANS 241:2015 document. The concentrations of most of the sites invesitigated were within the SANS guidelines except for bacterial determinant in certain sampling sites. In addition, the water chemistry in the seletected sites was assessed using multivariate statistical techniques, such as principal component analysis (PCA), pearson correlation matrix and cluster analysis (CA). Water quality parameters pH, EC, fluoride, sulphate, nitrates, chloride, zinc, sodium, iron, barium, turbidity, and total coliforms were employed for water quality analysis using the adjusted water quality index (WQI) formula. The PCA transferred the chemical variables into four principal components (PCs). The high positive and negative loadings of PC1 were EC, E. coli, pH, faecal coliform, turbidity, Cl−, TDS, SO42−, Na+, NO3−, and F− which suggests that the study area had influence of domestic waste waters, irrigation return flows and chemical fertilizers on the groundwater system. The PC2 had high loadings of heterotrophic plate count (HPC) and Zn. The PC3 and PC4 showed loading of most of the parameters. The study helps to take remediate measures at a specific site and hence suggests the treatment of water before its drinking and also the recharge of the aquifer artificially to improve the groundwater quality. The results of this study showed variation in water quality of the borehole and spring water. Additionally, the WQI indicated from “excellent” to “unsuitable” status of borehole and v spring water quality with spring water being more affected. The total coliforms contributed to poor and unsuitable drinking water quality in the study area. The findings suggested that the water quality in of springs and boreholes in villages around the study area is affected by anthropogenic activities such domestic sewage, livestock, , agriculture runoff, pitlatrines and poor sanitation. Therefore, the findings in this study can provide relevant information for policy makers that will assistant in providing safe and clean water to the surroung villagers. Finally, it is recommended that consistent monitoring of the borehole and spring water quality and the formation of a long-term management plan for the protection of water resources should be implemented.
M.Sc. (Chemistry)