Evaluation of the microbial quality of water supplies to municipal, mining and squatter communities in the Bindura urban area of Zimbabwe

Abstract

A survey of the microbiological and chemical quality of water supplies in the Bindura urban and peri-urban area was carried out over a three-year period from January 2000 to July 2003. Bindura is the provincial city of Mashonaland Central, situated 88 km from the national capital, Harare. Large-scale farming and mining activities in the area predispose water bodies to eutrophication and chemical pollutants, raising concerns about the safety of local water supplies. In this study, thermotolerant (faecal) coliform levels, total aerobic bacterial counts and physicochemical profiles were determined for municipal and borehole water as well as water supplies to mining and squatter communities. Although municipal and mining compound water supplies were of satisfactory microbial and chemical quality, borehole water supplies showed a seasonal fluctuation, with higher coliform counts in the wet season from November to March. Stream water supplies to a squatter camp in the peri-urban area consistently recorded coliform levels >1,800/100 mL and total aerobic plate counts of <2.8 x 10(6) CFU/mL. All cholera incidents recorded in 1999 and 2000 at the Provincial hospital were from peri-urban settlements and surrounding commercial farms while 1,045 to 2,632 cases of dysentery were also reported each year at the provincial hospital during the period 1997-2002.