Reliable prediction of water quality changes is a prerequisite for early water pollution control and is vital in environmental monitoring, ecosystem sustainability, and human health. This study uses Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique to develop the best model fits to predict water quality parameters by employing multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network and the radial basis function (RBF) neural network, using data collected from three district municipalities. Two input combination models, MLP-4-5-4 and MLP-4-9-4, were trained, verified, and tested for their predictive performance ability, and their physicochemical prediction accuracy was compared by using each model’s observed data with the predicted data. The MLP-4-5-4 model showed a better understanding of the data sets and water quality predictive ability giving an MSE of 39.06589 and a correlation coefficient (R2) of the observed and the predicted water quality of 0.989383 compared to the MLP-4-9-4 model (R2 = 0.993532, MSE = 39.03087). These results apply to natural water resources management in South Africa and similar catchment systems. The MLP-4-5-4 system can be scaled up for future water quality prediction of the Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs), groundwater, and surface water while raising awareness among the public and industry on future water quality.

The current study aimed at performing correlation analyses to gain a more detailed systems understanding of the temporal trends in financial losses from fires (disaster impacts) and the fire brigade call-outs (disaster response) in South Africa from the 2004 to 2017 period. The analysis is performed using data on the fire disaster impacts at the national level and the local level (Makana Local Municipality). The data on disaster impacts was extracted from databases and reports published by the Fire Protection Association of Southern Africa and Statistics South Africa. The total number of fire brigade call-outs/fires for the entire territory of South Africa ranged from 26574 in 2010 to 49567 in 2017. There was a direct correlation between the total number of fires and the losses from fires in residential settings in South Africa with time for the studied period. The losses from fire disasters in residential settings accounted for between 21.84 % and 74.06 % of all financial losses in South Africa between 2004 and 2017. On the other hand, call-outs to fire brigades with a residential cause or related to rubbish/bush/grass accounted for an average of 81.7 ± 2.7 % between 2004 and 2007, while it reached 88.5 ± 4.9 % in Makana Local Municipality. This indicates that fires in residential settings or related to rubbish or plant-based fuel account for a significant majority of the time fire brigades spent fighting fires in South Africa between 2004 and 2017. Fuel and waste management, and increasing fire human resilience at the household level, will play a significant role in the fire disaster risk management in South Africa. Vegetation cover and management will play a key role in the fire DRM in South Africa and local municipalities such as Makana.

The current paper provides a review and meta-analysis of the practical implications of disaster risk management related to the ventilated improved latrines in South Africa. This technology is evaluated through its legacy and novel challenges of disaster risk reduction. In the current article, the methodology adopted was a literature review and meta-analyses. The results indicate that the in-situ treatment and breakdown of faecal sludge in the ventilated improved pit latrines is not always taking place and that anaerobic digestion might not always be feasible. New strategies are proposed to manage the sanitation-related risks in South Africa by specifying more exact dimensions for the newly built ventilated improved pit latrines by suggesting the use of novel sanitation additives such as fly ash to enhance on-site and in situ treatment, as well as ex situ treatment of the pit latrine faecal sludge. Regular maintenance can lead to prevention of the dysfunctional character of the ventilated improved pit latrines as a functional sanitation technology and a user-friendly hygiene barrier to the spread of sanitation/WASH-related epidemics or infectious diseases. The implementation of the novel strategies should be enhanced by the application of the (Environmental) Technology Assessment in sanitation service delivery in South Africa.