Despite being a finite resource, both the quality and quantity of groundwater are under tremendous pressure due to rapid global changes, viz. population growth, land-use/land-cover changes (LULC), and climate change. The 6th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aims to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. One of the most significant dimensions of the SDG agenda is the emphasis on data and governance. However, the lack of good governance coupled with good observed data cannot ensure the achievement of SDG6. Therefore, this study strives to evaluate water quality status and hydrochemical processes governing it in the data-scarce Mokopane area of South Africa. Groundwater is the main source of fresh water supply for domestic usage, intensive agriculture, and mining activities in Mokopane. In this study, hydrogeochemical analysis of groundwater samples was employed to calculate the water quality index (WQI) and evaluate factors governing water quality evolution in the study area. Statistical and spatial analysis techniques were carried out to divide sampling sites into clusters and delineate principal factors responsible for determining water quality of the sampled groundwater. Results suggest that most of the physico-chemical parameters are within permissible limits for drinking water set by the World Health Organization (WHO), except for high fluoride in some samples. Na-HCO3 is the most abundant water type followed by Mg-HCO3, which indicates dominance of Na+, Mg2+, and HCO3±. Rock-water interaction is the prime factor responsible for fluoride enrichment in water. The alkaline nature of groundwater favors the release of exchangeable F− from minerals like muscovite. The WQI suggests that 80% of water samples fall into the good and excellent categories. Poor management of untreated domestic sewage and agricultural runoff is a main factor for the bad/very bad categories of water samples. As the area lacks any credible scientific/government work to report water quality and its management aspects, the findings of this study will definitely help both scientific communities and policy makers to do what is needed for sustainable water resource management in a timely manner.
Considering the well-documented impacts of land-use change on water resources and the rapid land-use conversions occurring throughout Africa, in this study, we conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of surface water quality and its relation with the land use and land cover (LULC) pattern in Mokopane, Limpopo province of South Africa. Various physico-chemical parameters were analyzed for surface water samples collected from five sampling locations from 2016 to 2020. Time-series analysis of key surface water quality parameters was performed to identify the essential hydrological processes governing water quality. The analyzed water quality data were also used to calculate the heavy metal pollution index (HPI), heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) and weighted water quality index (WQI). Also, the spatial trend of water quality is compared with LULC changes from 2015 to 2020. Results revealed that the concentration of most of the physico-chemical parameters in the water samples was beyond the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted permissible limit, except for a few parameters in some locations. Based on the calculated values of HPI and HEI, water quality samples were categorized as low to moderately polluted water bodies, whereas all water samples fell under the poor category (>100) and beyond based on the calculated WQI. Looking precisely at the water quality’s temporal trend, it is found that most of the sampling shows a deteriorating trend from 2016 to 2019. However, the year 2020 shows a slightly improving trend on water quality, which can be justified by lowering human activities during the lockdown period imposed by COVID-19. Land use has a significant relationship with surface water quality, and it was evident that built-up land had a more significant negative impact on water quality than the other land use classes. Both natural processes (rock weathering) and anthropogenic activities (wastewater discharge, industrial activities etc.) were found to be playing a vital role in water quality evolution. This study suggests that continuous assessment and monitoring of the spatial and temporal variability of water quality in Limpopo is important to control pollution and health safety in the future.
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