Water provision under the Covid-19 lockdown conditions: snapshot of microbial quality of alternative sources, the associated costs and carbon footprints
Abstract
The situational reality, i.e. everyday functioning of a single human being and the existence of all of Homo sapiens, during the COVID19 pandemic requires maintenance of personal hygiene. Here results from the monitoring of microbial water quality of rainwater and treated municipal water from a retail shop in Makana Local Municipality are presented. These are the two main alternative sources of potable water during the current drought rationing of the municipal water supply. Testing of microbial water quality was done using the H2S test kit. The costs and carbon footprint of retail shop water was estimated using distance travelled to the shop, the related fuel consumption and literature data. Disinfection of the sampled rainwater was done using the One Drop disinfectant. All samples of the harvested rainwater were positive for faecal contamination, while the treated municipal water from the retail shop was always free from faecal contamination. The cost of purchasing 1 litre of the treated drinking water from a water-only shop in the main mall in Makana Local Municipality ranged from 1.64 AR to 2.11 ZAR, depending on the settlement studied. Taking the treated water being the
source of water for drinking only, the estimated cost would account for between 9.5 and 36.2 % of the estimated monthly income of a low-income household. The carbon footprint of provision of 1 litre of treated municipal water was equal to 77.5 g CO2 for the middle-class suburb and to 135.5 g CO2 for the low-income suburb. Transport burden was the largest portion of the costs and carbon footprints of the drinking water provision from alternative sources in Makana Local Municipality. Installation of the treatment systems as urban furniture in close proximity to the households could provide sufficient of supply of safe drinking water to the Makana population during COVID19 and beyond.
References
Aman, F., Masood, S. (2020). How Nutrition can help to fight against COVID-19 Pandemic. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences 36(COVID19-S4): S121-S123. doi: 10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2776.
Atkinson, S. (2020). News Focus: Charity and Ethiopian project both benefit from DuPont's ability to provide safe drinking water. Membrane Technology 7: 5. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0958-2118(20)30123-3.
Bagrath, P., Manqele, S., Walsh, H., Prstková, K., Srinivas, S., Tandlich, R. (2020). Cordone sanitaire and its ethical implications of COVID19 pandemic. Published in the peer-reviewed proceedings from the 2020 CRISCON Conference, held in Uherské Hradiště, pp. 239-267 (ISBN 978-80-7454-957-1).
Botto, S. (2009). Tap water vs. bottled water in a footprint integrated approach. Nature Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3407.1.
Centre for Environmental Rights (CER, 2017). National standards for domestic water and sanitation services. Available at: https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/1997/12/Nationalnorms-and-standards-for-domenstic-water-and-sanitation-services.pdf (website accessed on 30th November 2021).
Cornejo, P. K., Santana, M. V. E., Hokanson, D. R., Mihelcic, J. R., Zhang, Q. (2014). Carbon footprint of water reuse and desalination: a review of greenhouse gas emissions and estimation tools. Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination 4(4): 238-252. https://doi.org/10.2166/wrd.2014.058.
Department of Employment and Labour (2021). Disaster Management Act: Direction: Coronavirus COVID-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits for certain categories of employees. Available at: https://www.gov.za/documents/disastermanagement-act-covid-19-temporary-employeeemployer-relief-scheme-c19-ters-0 (website accessed on 26th November 2021).
Duttagupta, S., Bhanja, S. N., Dutta, A., Sarkar, S., Chakraborty, M., Ghosh, A., Mondal, D., Mukherjee, A. (2021). Impact of Covid-19 Lockdown on Availability of Drinking Water in the Arsenic-Affected Ganges River Basin. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18: Article number 2832. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062832.
Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC, 2021). Eastern Cape Labour Market Overview. Available at: https://ecsecc.org/datarepository/documents/ecsecc-labourreport2021q2_r00TE.pdf (website accessed on 27th November 2021).
Forterre, P. (2013). The virocell concept and environmental microbiology. The ISME Journal 13: 233-236. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2012.110.
Global Data Lab (2013-2021). GDL Area Profile Report: Africa/South Africa/Eastern Cape. Available at: https://globaldatalab.org/profiles/region/ZAFr102/ (website accessed on 27th November 2021).
Government of South Africa (2021a). Social relief of distress. Available at: https://www.gov.za/services/social-benefits/social-relief-distress (website accessed on 26th November 2021).
Government of South Africa (2021b). Employment and Labour on new National Minimum Wage rate. Available at: https://www.gov.za/speeches/new-nmw-base-rate-come-effectmarch-%E2%80%93-department-employment-and-labour-24-feb-2020-0000 (website accessed on 27th November 2021).
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Vaishya, R. (2020). Letter to the Editor: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic in daily life. Current Medicine Research and Practice 10(2): 78-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmrp.2020.03.011.
Iheanetu, C., Tamášová, V., Tandlich, R., (2021). Speed, human reality, and the ribovirocell of human existence in the COVID19 and post-COVID19 space-time. Ethics in Environmental Science and Politics (submitted on 26th November 2021).
Khadse, S., Gharami, N., Sapate, T. (2020). COVID-19 outbreaks and impact on drinking water. International Journal of Technical Research & Science https://doi.org/10.30780/IJTRS.V05.I08.005 pg. 35.
Kumar, P. (2021). Water Quality Assessments for Urban Water Environment. Water 13: Article number 1686. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13121686.
Malema, M. S., Mwenge Kahinda, J.-M., Abia, A. L. K., Tandlich, R., Zuma, B. M., UbombaJaswa, E. (2019). The efficiency of a low-cost hydrogen sulphide (H2S) kit as an early warning test for assessing microbial rainwater quality and its correlation with standard indicators microorganisms. Nova Biotechnologica et Chimica 18(2): 133-143. doi: 10.2478/nbec-2019-0016.
Mbakaya, B. C., Kalembo, F. W., Zgambo, M. (2020). Use, adoption, and effectiveness of tippy-tap handwashing station in promoting hand hygiene practices in resource-limited settings: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 20; Article number 1005. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09101-w.
McLaughlin, J. (2017).Jeremy Bentham - On the Principle of Utility. In: The Originals: Classic Readings in Western Philosophy. Victoria, BC: BCcampus/TRU. Available at: https://opentextbc.ca/classicalreadings/ (website accessed on 30th November 2021).
Mendes, T. C. R., de Jesus, K. D., Filho, A. F. C. (2020). Urban furniture and the COVID-19 pandemic: when the access to drinking water for vulnerable populations becomes even more crucial. Revista Nacional de Gerenciamento de Cidades 8(68): 16-21.https://doi.org/10.17271/2318847286820202726.
Molekoa, M. D., Avtar, R., Kumar, P., Thu Minh, H. V., Dasgupta, R., Johnson, B. A., Sahu, N., Verma,
R. L., Yunus, A. P. (2021). Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Surface Water Quality in Mokopane
Area, Limpopo, South Africa. Water 13: Article number 220. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13020220.
Mishra, B. K., Kumar, P., Saraswat, C., Chakraborty, S., Gautam, A. (2021). Water Security in a Changing Environment: Concept, Challenges and Solutions. Water 13: Article number 490. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040490.
Muyambo F., Restas A., Jordaan A., Bodnar L: A life-saving technology supporting crisis management: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in developing countries. Delta: vedeckoodborný časopis katedry protipožiarnej ochrany, 11 : 22 pp. 20-27., (2017).
Ncube, A., Borodin, Y. (2012). Life Cycle Assessment of polyethylene terephthalate bottle. Published in a peer-reviewed conference proceedings from the 2012 7th International Forum on Strategic Technology (IFOST), held in Tomsk, Russia from 18 th until 21th September 2012.
Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6357497 (website accessed on 28th November 2021).
New York Times (NY Times, 2021). Tracking coronavirus vaccinations around the world. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinationstracker.html (website accessed on 27th November 2021).
Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE, 2020). Fight Covid-19 by making a Tippy Tap. Available at: https://youtu.be/URfDHHOv-YA (website accessed on 22nd November 2021).
Tandlich, R., Iheanetu, C., Tamášová, V. (2021). Simile on sense of self, virocell and the COVID19 pandemic. Ethics in Environmental Science and Politics (submitted on 12th November 2021).
Tandlich, R. (2020). Citizen science based monitoring of microbial water quality at a single household level in a South African local municipality during the COVID19 lockdown. Nova Biotechnologica et Chimica 19(1): 116-123. doi: 10.36547/nbc.v19i1.586.
Toyota South Africa (2021). TOYOTA QUANTUM BUS. Available at: https://www.motustoyota.co.za/vehicle/range/quantum-bus (website accessed on 28th November 2021).
UNICEF (2021). People powered #TippyTapChallenge relaunched to help curb the spread of COVID-19 through handwashing. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/pressreleases/people-powered-tippytapchallenge-relaunched-help-curb-spread-covid-19-through
(website accessed on 22nd November 2021).
United States Envrionmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 2021). Greenhouse Gases Equivalencies Calculator - Calculations and References. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-andreferences (website accessed on 28th November 2021).
Usman, M., Farooq, M., Farooq, M., Anastopoulos, I. (2021). Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in aerosolized wastewater: toilet flushing, wastewater treatment, and sprinkler irrigation. Water 13: Article number 436. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040436.
