In Jordan, the unprecedented proliferation of building projects is anticipated to increase the potable water demand in the construction manufacturing. In the present work, secondary treated wastewater (STW) and potable water (PW) were used in the production of concrete mixes, which were subjected to testing after 3 to 28 days of curing to determine how the, mechanical properties of concrete was affected by the addition of secondary treated wastewater in various proportions (25-100%). Results indicated that the use of 25% and 75% of secondary treated wastewater in concrete production increased the compressive strength to 39 MPa after 28 days of curing. A more noticeable increment was recorded in tensile strength, which was double that achieved with the standard design. Overall, the compressive strength increased by 21.95% when secondary treated wastewater was used, while the expenditure related to water usage was halved. Furthermore, there was consistency between the results obtained from scaling up to actual ready-mix concrete production and the results of the empirical work.

Challenges with respect to potable water supply in Vhembe District threaten the health and welfare of local community. This paper is aimed at assessing the challenges and residents’ coping strategies to improve the potable water supply systems in rural areas in Vhembe District Municipality (VDM). Data for this paper was collected from households, councillors, traditional leaders and municipal officials through questionnaires, interviews and focus-group discussions. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used and thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. The results showed that the main sources of water are ground water from boreholes which are used by about 45.3% of the communities, followed by tap water from the dams, by 35.3%, then rivers by 4.0%, fountains by 5.4% and water tankers by 10.0%. Among the identified challenges are: aged water infrastructure, system breakdowns, lack of funding, vandalism of infrastructure and lack of maintenance, operation of infrastructure by unskilled technicians, theft, and non-payment of water services, among others. To cope with water supply challenges, the study recommended that communities play active role in water projects which would include paying of water supply service for its sustainability. They should also play active roles in water committees that will manage, operate and maintain the water supply with the assistance of VDM officials. It was concluded that the rural water supply situation can be improved when communities, government and other relevant stakeholders cooperate and provide solutions and resources.