Center for Environment and Energy Research and Studies (CEERS)
Abstract
Viral indicators were used to evaluate the effectiveness of water
treatment processes and to determine the source of faecal pollution
with a view to promote water source management. Water samples were
collected from three critical points of the Temba, Klipdrift and Wall-
mansthal water treatment plants (raw water, settled water and filtered
water). The viral indicator concentrations and selected physicochemical
parameters were measured using standard methods. Random water samples
were subjected to real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses. Sub-
sequent to filtration, the removal efficiency of the three Waterworks
was recorded as follows: 93.2, 96.1 and 95.7 % for somatic coliphages,
respectively; and 69.4 and 68.4 % FRNA coliphages for Temba and
Klipdrift. There was a notable 50 % reappearance of FRNA coliphages in
filtered water samples from Wallmansthal. Positive corre- lations were
observed between the physicochemical parameters and somatic coliphages,
with the exception of the pH and the temperature in Wallmansthal. Both
turbidity and temperature indicated positive correlations with FRNA
counts from Temba and Klipdrift. Negative correlations were observed
between all the physicochemical parameters and FRNA counts from
Wallmansthal. The real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses revealed
the persis- tence of GA genotype FRNA (Group II, which is of human
faecal origin) in all the water samples. The MS2 genotype (Group I) and
Q β genotype (Group III) FRNA, which are of animal origin, were
detected only in the raw water from Temba. Efforts should be focused on
the protection of water sources and the optimisation of treatment
processes in order to prevent viral persistence during water treatment