Microbial Remobilisation on Riverbed Sediment Disturbance in Experimental Flumes and a Human-Impacted River: Implication for Water Resource Management and Public Health in Developing Sub-Saharan African Countries

Akebe Luther King Abia, Chris James, Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa and Maggy Ndombo Benteke Momba
Additional contact information
Akebe Luther King Abia: Departments of Biotechnology, Vaal university of Technology, Private Bag X021, Andries Potgieter Blvd, Vanderbijlpark 1911, South Africa
Chris James: School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa
Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa: Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Maggy Ndombo Benteke Momba: Department of Environmental, Water and Earth Science, Tshwane University of Technology, Arcadia Campus, 175 Nelson Mandela Drive, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Resuspension of sediment-borne microorganisms (including pathogens) into the water column could increase the health risk for those using river water for different purposes. In the present work, we (1) investigated the effect of sediment disturbance on microbial resuspension from riverbed sediments in laboratory flow-chambers and in the Apies River, Gauteng, South Africa; and (2) estimated flow conditions for sediment-borne microorganism entrainment/resuspension in the river. For mechanical disturbance, the top 2 cm of the sediment in flow-chambers was manually stirred. Simulating sudden discharge into the river, water (3 L) was poured within 30 s into the chambers at a 45° angle to the chamber width. In the field, sediment was disturbed by raking the riverbed and by cows crossing in the river. Water samples before and after sediment disturbance were analysed for Escherichia coli . Sediment disturbance caused an increase in water E. coli counts by up to 7.9–35.8 times original values. Using Shields criterion, river-flow of 0.15–0.69 m 3 /s could cause bed particle entrainment; while ~1.57–7.23 m 3 /s would cause resuspension. Thus, sediment disturbance in the Apies River would resuspend E. coli (and pathogens), with possible negative health implications for communities using such water. Therefore, monitoring surface water bodies should include microbial sediment quality.

Keywords: Escherichia coli; sediment microbial quality; riverbed sediment disturbance; sediment resuspension; public health risk; water resource management; alternative water sources; water resources monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/306/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/306/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:3:p:306-:d:93171

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().