IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i16p2972-d258722.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Social Disparities on Microbiological Quality of Drinking Water Supply in Ugu District Municipality of Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • C. M. N. Khabo-Mmekoa

    (Department of Biomedical Technology, Arcadia Campus, Tshwane University of Technology, 175 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001, South Africa)

  • M. N. B. Momba

    (Department of Environmental, Water and Earth Sciences, Arcadia Campus, Tshwane University of Technology, 175 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001, South Africa)

Abstract

This study was undertaken to highlight the social disparity between rural and urban areas in terms of housing patterns, provision of safe drinking water, access to sanitation facilities, education, employment rate and health-related to diarrhoeal episodes in Ugu District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. To achieve this aim, a survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Drinking water samples were collected from the point of supply and the storage containers to assess the microbiological quality of drinking water in both rural and urban areas. Results of this study revealed prominent residential segregation between rural and urban communities, whereby the houses in the rural areas were generally constructed with corrugated iron sheets, or mud brick and mortar whereas conventional brick-and-mortar construction was used to build those in the urban areas. All of the urban households had flush toilets in their houses (100%), while 98.2% of the rural households were relying on pit latrines and 1.8% were reported to defecate in an open field. The District unemployment rate was at 58.1% in rural areas and none among the urban community. Results also showed that only 13.6% of the rural dwellers completed their secondary education compared to 70.4% of the urban areas. The diarrhoeal episodes were high in rural areas (34.1%) while none of these episodes was reported in urban areas. Great disparity in the water supply persists between rural and urban communities. For the former, the standpipes located outside their homes (90.9%) remain the sole mode of access to drinking water, while in the urban area, all households had pipes/taps inside their houses. Assessment of the drinking water quality revealed only the stored drinking water used by the rural community of Ugu District was contaminated. High prevalence of E. coli ranging from 63.3 % to 66.7% was recorded only in stored water after the sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Species-specific PCR primers exposed the presence of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli at a rate ranging between 1.4% and 3.7% in this water Overall, this study has been able to highlight the disparity left by the legacy of racial segregation in the Ugu Municipality District. Therefore, the local government must intervene in educating homeowners on safe water storage practices.

Suggested Citation

  • C. M. N. Khabo-Mmekoa & M. N. B. Momba, 2019. "The Impact of Social Disparities on Microbiological Quality of Drinking Water Supply in Ugu District Municipality of Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2972-:d:258722
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2972/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2972/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Sahn & David C. Stifel, 2003. "Urban--Rural Inequality in Living Standards in Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 12(4), pages 564-597, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Derek Headey & David Stifel & Liangzhi You & Zhe Guo, 2018. "Remoteness, urbanization, and child nutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 765-775, November.
    2. Mussa, Richard, 2010. "Poverty and Inequality in Standards of Living in Malawi: Does Religious Affiliation Matter?," MPRA Paper 24438, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. World Bank, 2004. "Sri Lanka - Reshaping Economic Geography : Connecting People to Prosperity," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21549, December.
    4. Richard Mussa, 2013. "Spatial Comparisons of Poverty and Inequality in Living Standards in Malawi," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(2), pages 192-210, June.
    5. Brueckner, Jan K. & Lall, Somik V., 2015. "Cities in Developing Countries," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1399-1455, Elsevier.
    6. Terry Sicular & Yue Ximing & Björn Gustafsson & Li Shi, 2007. "The Urban–Rural Income Gap And Inequality In China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(1), pages 93-126, March.
    7. repec:ilo:ilowps:458221 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Burke, William J. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Freeman, H. Ade & Kristjanson, Patricia, 2007. "Factors Associated with Farm Households’ Movement Into and Out of Poverty in Kenya: The Rising Importance of Livestock," Food Security International Development Working Papers 54563, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    9. Bérenger Valérie & Audrey Verdier‐Chouchane, 2016. "Working Paper 230 - Child Labour and Schooling in South Sudan and Sudan: Is There a Gender Preference?," Working Paper Series 2323, African Development Bank.
    10. Embaye, Weldensie T. & Zereyesus, Yacob A., 2017. "Measuring the value of housing services in household surveys: an application of machine learning approach," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252851, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    11. Faguet, Jean-Paul & Shami, Mahvish, 2008. "Fiscal policy and spatial inequality in Latin America and beyond," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 27162, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Frankema, Ewout & Bolt, Jutta, 2006. "Measuring and Analysing Educational Inequality: The Distribution of Grade Enrolment Rates in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-86, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    13. Derek Headey & Sangeetha Malaiyandi & Shenggen Fan, 2010. "Navigating the perfect storm: reflections on the food, energy, and financial crises," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(s1), pages 217-228, November.
    14. Tombe, Trevor, 2011. "Structural change and regional convergence: the case of declining transport costs," MPRA Paper 34053, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Frikkie Booysen & Ronelle Burger & Gideon Du Rand & Michael von Maltitz & Servaas Van der Berg, 2007. "Trends in Poverty and Inequality in Seven African Countries," Working Papers PMMA 2007-06, PEP-PMMA.
    16. Wasim, Summerina & Munir, Kashif, 2017. "Regional Disparity and Decentralization in Pakistan: A Decomposition Analysis," MPRA Paper 83444, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Briggs, Ryan C., 2018. "Poor targeting: A gridded spatial analysis of the degree to which aid reaches the poor in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 133-148.
    18. Ellen van de Poel & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2007. "Are Urban Children really healthier?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-035/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    19. Narges Ebadi & Davod Ahmadi & Ibrahim Sirkeci & Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez, 2018. "The Impact of Remittances on Food Security Status in the Global South," Remittances Review, Remittances Review, vol. 3(2), pages 135-150, October.
    20. Alizée McLorg & Kennedy Omolo & Peter Sifuna & Andrea Shaw & Bhavneet Walia & David A. Larsen, 2021. "Examining Wealth Trends in Kombewa, Kenya," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 631-651, September.
    21. Kanbur, Ravi & Venables, Anthony J., 2005. "SPATIAL INEQUALITY AND DEVELOPMENT Overview of UNU-WIDER Project," Working Papers 127127, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2972-:d:258722. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.