Approaches for regulating water in South Africa for the presence of pesticides

Abstract

The public health significance of pesticide pollution of water sources in South Africa has received little attention from policy-makers and regulators, unlike microbiological quality of potable water. This anomaly is reflected in the current legislation in South Africa which is marked by inadequate regulatory standards for pesticides in water. Due to high costs, technical constraints and shortage of laboratory skills for pesticide analyses in South Africa, the poor regulatory framework has no monitoring data on which to base policy. In contrast, international experience in setting standards for maximum permissible levels of pesticides in water is extensive. The different approaches used by the World Health Organisation, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union are outlined, as well as the assumptions underlying these different approaches. Drawing on these models, recommendations are made as to how to integrate concerns for pesticide safety in environmental regulation and risk assessment in South Africa. Such measures would ensure consistency with recent developments in environmental management in South Africa that give primacy to a number of key environmental policy principles. A public health perspective should ensure that growing international concerns for longterm adverse health and environmental impacts arising from the presence of pesticides in water are adequately addressed in regulatory controls in South Africa.

Concentration and Health Implication of Heavy Metals in Drinking Water from Urban Areas of Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia

“…TDS greater than 1200 mg/L may be objectionable to consumers and could have impacts for those who need to limit their daily salt intake e.g. Severely hypertensive, diabetic, and renal dialysis patients (London et al, 2005). Of the samples analyzed 47.17% were found to contain TDS value of greater than 500 mg/L, these were mainly from Axum, Mekelle, According to the salinity classification of Rabinove et al, 1958, (Table 4), more than 94.33% of the samples were found to be non-saline and only 5.67% were slightly saline.…”

Urban groundwater quality in sub-Saharan Africa: current status and implications for water security and public health

“…Karlsson et al 2000;Schulz et al 2003;Awofolu and Fatoki 2004), and pesticide storage and use remains largely unregulated and monitored (Dalvie et al 2006;London et al 2005). There are few studies that have investigated micro-organic compounds such as pharmaceuticals in freshwater sources (Hughes et al 2012;Oketola FC faecal coliform (values given as 0 are below detection limit of method), SEC specific electrical conductivity, TC total coliform, TDS total dissolved solids.…”

Preliminary risk assessment of common-use pesticides using PRIMET and PERPEST pesticide risk models in a semi-arid subtropical region

“…The resulting outcome of this is complex simulation models that are inaccurate due to the primary input data being insufficient (Van den Brink et al, 2006). This is amplified in developing countries due to a lack of resources, thus restricting widespread use of the models (London et al, 2005).…”