Nhokodi Tererai, Sithole Tariro, Mutingwende Nhamo, Ristvej Jozef, Tandlich Roman
Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology Innovation Centre, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0959-3298.
Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology Innovation Centre, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2058-5571.
J Emerg Manag. 2023;21(8):97-117. doi: 10.5055/jem.0739.
Makana Local Municipality is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The area is water-scarce and has been undergoing aridification in recent years, ie, there has been a 7-year long drought. At the same time, there has been a breakdown in provision of municipal services, such as drinking water, to the population since at least 2008. Mi-crobial water quality has been a result of this, and monitoring has been a challenge. Given the drought and the prob-lems with drinking water delivery, it was necessary to conduct this study to investigate the microbial quality of alterna-tive water resources that the Makana population can use during the municipal water outage. The microbial water quality of alternative sources of drinking water in the Makana Local Municipality was examined using the H2S test kit and enumeration of the fecal coliforms. Storage of the collected water was examined for potential factors influencing the microbial water quality of the alternative sources of drinking water. The costs of the water provision from the most suitable alternative sources of potable water were calculated. There was a general correlation between the H2S test kit results and the fecal coliform concentrations, with the latter values ranging from <0 to 23 ± 7 colony-forming units/100 mL. The bottled water from two retail outlets was provided the best alternative source of potable/drinking water, which is microbially safe, for the Makana population. If the consumption of the drinking water from an alternative source takes place within 24 hours of collection, then the Fairview spring could also be used as a source of drinking water for Maka-na residents. The total cost per 1 L of drinking water from alternative sources was estimated to be from 1.51 to 5.81 ZAR. Therefore, the maximum cost of daily provision of drinking water from alternative sources would account for a maximum of 0.88 percent of the monthly household expenditure in the middle-to-high-income household. However, the daily costs of such provision of drinking water would account for a maximum of 8.11 percent of the monthly household expenditure in the low-income household. Provision of the drinking water from the alternative sources would have a minor impact of the monthly ex-penditure in the middle-to-high-income households. However, it is likely that the low-income households would not be able to sustain their water supply from alternative sources for longer than 24 hours, during a municipal outage in the drinking water supply.
马卡纳地方市政当局位于南非东开普省。该地区水资源匮乏，近年来一直在经历干旱化，即已经历了长达7年的干旱。与此同时，至少自2008年以来，向居民提供的市政服务，如饮用水供应，出现了故障。微生物水质因此受到影响，监测也成为一项挑战。鉴于干旱以及饮用水供应问题，有必要开展这项研究，以调查马卡纳居民在市政供水中断期间可以使用的替代水源的微生物质量。使用硫化氢检测试剂盒和粪便大肠菌群计数法检测了马卡纳地方市政当局替代饮用水源的微生物水质。对收集到的水的储存情况进行了检查，以确定影响替代饮用水源微生物水质的潜在因素。计算了最合适的替代饮用水源的供水成本。硫化氢检测试剂盒结果与粪便大肠菌群浓度之间存在总体相关性，后者的值范围为<0至23±7菌落形成单位/100毫升。来自两个零售店的瓶装水是为马卡纳居民提供的微生物安全的最佳替代饮用水源。如果从替代水源获取的饮用水在收集后24小时内饮用，那么美景泉也可以用作马卡纳居民的饮用水源。替代水源每1升饮用水的总成本估计为1.51至5.81南非兰特。因此，从替代水源每日提供饮用水的最高成本最多占中高收入家庭每月家庭支出的0.88%。然而，这种提供饮用水的每日成本在低收入家庭中最多占每月家庭支出的8.11%。从替代水源提供饮用水对中高收入家庭的每月支出影响较小。然而，在市政饮用水供应中断期间，低收入家庭可能无法从替代水源维持超过24小时的供水。
