View/Open - University of Zululand Institutional Repository

208
as well as fittings and polyethylene piping (up to 500 m in length). The residents in turn,
must provide the balance of materials, namely, building sand (if available in the area), all
cement, and any additional piping and fittings (including taps) not supplied by the
Department. Self-help labour for unskilled tasks such as trench digging is also needed.
Semi-skilled personnel are provided by the Department. A concrete reservoir, often with
a capacity of 3 150 I or 5 510 I is constructed if required by the residents. Spring
protection undertaken by non-government organizations such as the Valley Trust, as well
as by the Joint Services Boards and the Directorate of Community Development of the
Community Services Branch, Natal Provincial Administration, essentially involves the same
procedure as above, with residents responsible for most Or all repairs to the spring
protection chamber and reservoir. The demand for protected springs is greatest in the
rural areas of KwaZulu. In peri-urban areas with some form of reticulated supply,
protected springs are no longer used for potable requirements (except by the poorest of
households or households at a considerable distance from the standpipes). Protected
spring water in such circumstances is used for washing and general purposes.
11.12.1 Types of springs·
Springs can be divided into two broad categories namely, gravity springs and artesian
springs. Both types of springs are further subdivided into depression or overflow springs.
Since the geohydrology is complex, only a simplified discussion is presented here.
• Discussion based on Hofkes, E.H. ledl, 1983. Small Community Water Supplies: Technology of
Small Water Supply Systems in Developing Countries. International Reference Centre for Community
Water Supply and Sanitation and John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 442 p. lurie, J., 1989. South
African Geology for Mining. Metallurgical. Hydrological and Civil Engineering. lexicon Publishers,
Johamesburg, 342 p•• provided a slightly different classification of springs. namely, stratum, valley,
fault, artesian and tubular springs. Stratum springs are evident when dawnward percatating water
in a permeable formation reaches an impervious layer. Stratum springs occur where the contact crops
aut. Valley springs form where the ground surface falls belaw the water table. Fault springs result
when a permeable formation is braught against impermeable rocks by faulting. In an artesian spring,
the water emerges under pressure· due to entrapment in a geological formation. The water table is
at a higher elevation than the outlet of the spring. Tubular springs occur in limestone and dolomitic
areas where solution of the rock by water containing carbon dioxide, allows the groundwater to flow
along bedding planes, fissures and joints enlarged by solution. Such water may emerge as springs.
Where the openings consist of more or less rounded channels. they are known as tubular springs.