Assessing The Potability Of Water At Xhobe Watering Point In The Okavango Delta Ramsar Site Using Microbial And Chemical Indicators

Abstract

Boteti River is one of the Okavango Delta outlets. Thamalakane River provides a major outflow from the Delta and its waters enter the Boteti River that flows through Xhobe settlement in the Okavango Delta Ramsar site. The river is used by local communities as a source of water for domestic consumption, fishing, irrigation and motorboat riding in some parts of it. In this study, the water quality of this river is assessed to determine whether it is potable. Temperature, turbidity, total suspended solutes (TSS), electro conductivity (EC), fecal coliforms (FC), fecal streptococci (FS), total coliforms (TC) and chemical indicators were measured at Xhobe watering point on June 2009 to check whether the water is safe for drinking. All the variables measured meet the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) specification for Class I drinking water except for FC at 5-20 CFU/100ml, FS at 18-128 CFU/100ml, and TC at 43-135 CFU/100ml. The results indicate that there is a possibility of pollution from fecal sources and organic matter because the microbiological content is beyond the BOBS specification for drinking water. The study is a baseline of the assessment of the potability of water used by people in settlements of the Okavango Delta Ramsar site. Therefore, it is important to monitor the quality of water using both microbial and chemical indicators especially in places where people directly use the river water for whole life consumption in order for them to have access to clean water and live a healthy life.

Keywords: water quality, potability, microbiology, indicators, fecal pollution