Technical note: Evaluation of the impact of household treatment procedures on the quality of groundwater supplies in the rural community of the Victoria district, Eastern Cape

Abstract

The rural community in the Victoria district, Eastern Cape, uses groundwater from boreholes for drinking and other domestic purposes. The brackish taste of the water has been the major complaint from this community. In this study, the physicochemical and microbiological quality of the groundwater supplied to the community as well as the household treatment procedures which can be easily used to improve water quality standards were evaluated. For the physicochemical quality, salinity was the sole parameter of concern. The indicator bacteria were analysed using the membrane filtration technique. The bacteria detected were heterotrophic, total coliform, faecal coliform, and faecal streptococci. Total coliform counts were high in general and faecal coliforms were often detected and confirmed to be Escherichia coli by the indole test. The overall microbiological quality of the water was either poor or unacceptable according to South African standards.

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