Citizen engagement addressing risk of environmental pollution to river health, SD, and biodiversity
Partnering Institute: 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Limpopo
Project lead: Professor Wilmien Luus-Powell, SARChI Chair
About the project: This CoP project addresses theme 2, Clean Water. Human development impacts and exploitation of natural resources for improved well-being (e.g. food security, conflict, health, human displacement) often lead to indirect environmental consequences. These environmental changes may harm human development efforts including depletion of groundwater, soil erosion, climate change, sea level rise, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, resource depletion and water pollution. The impact of environmental pollution is more rigorous in developing countries and dangerous for sustainability of human development with the latter essential for long term economic development. Developing nations do not always have advanced technology and resources to prevent pollution. Consequently, a higher health risk and repercussions of climate change are experienced. Some of the health risks include contaminated water (e.g. high levels of metals, low pH levels) and waterborne diseases, as is the case in the Olifants catchment in South Africa, where this research will be located. High levels of waterborne diseases have been associated with inadequate waste treatment and the lack of proper public water supplies as well as inadequate personal hygiene habits. Waterborne diseases can have a significant impact on the economy. Infected people are usually confronted with financial losses caused by e.g. costs for medical treatment and medication, costs for transport, special food, and by the loss of manpower. Clean water is a pre-requisite for reducing the spread of waterborne diseases. Clean water is a human right. With this project we would like communities to learn to be aware of the risks associated with water pollution and be able to monitor water quality of their source water (e.g. rivers close to their household). This will be done through translation of our scientific insights into water pollution impacts, into training and knowledge transfer via use and development of citizen science tools.
Environmental changes may harm human development efforts including depletion of groundwater, soil erosion, climate change, sea level rise, deforestation, resource depletion and water pollution. Primary sources of water pollution are untreated or partially treated effluents from municipal, industrial and mining wastewater discharges, all of which affect the Olifants catchment .The impact of environmental pollution is more severe in vulnerable communities, and in rural contexts where advanced technology and resources to prevent pollution are not always readily available. Consequently, a higher health risk are experienced, reflecting the intersectional and complex nature of the issues. Some of the health risks include contaminated water (e.g. high levels of metals, low pH levels), contaminated fish, and waterborne diseases, as research in the SARChI Chair in Ecosystem Health shows (see CV for references). In the Limpopo and Olifants catchments, high levels of waterborne diseases have been associated with inadequate waste treatment and the lack of proper public water supplies where e-coli and other pollutants permeate the water courses (caused by faulty water treatment plants - a situation that currently affects approximately 40% of South Africa's municipalities (SALGA, 2019). Besides impacting on human health, and ecosystem health, waterborne diseases can have a significant impact on the economy. Infected people are usually confronted with financial losses caused by e.g. costs for medical treatment and medication, costs for transport, special food, and by the loss of manpower. Clean water is a pre-requisite for reducing the spread of waterborne diseases. With this project we would like communities to learn to be aware of the risks associated with water pollution and be able to monitor water quality from their source water (e.g. rivers close to their household). This will be done through training and knowledge transfer, and an effort to share many of the valuable insights that have been gained from our research in the SARChI Chair in Ecosystem Health. It is well recognised that the prevalence of waterborne diseases can be greatly reduced by provision of clean drinking water and safe disposal of faeces.
Methodology:
Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Tools and approaches: Water quality can be monitored using different methods. Biological monitoring includes the use of the South African Scoring System (SASS5) which is widely used to monitor the health status of rivers. A simpler method has been developed called miniSASS. ‘MiniSASS is a simple tool which can be used by anyone to monitor the health of a river. You collect a sample of macroinvertebrates (small animals) from the water, and depending on which groups are found, you have a measure of the general river health and water quality in that river’ (minisass.org/en). Students and pupils from local schools will be trained to use miniSASS to monitor water quality. In addition, a basic water monitoring kit will be prepared (e.g. pH strips, secchi disc for turbidity, miniSASS kit). Water samples will be collected once a month by students and pupils from a specific selected site of the river and analysed at the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Limpopo for total coliforms to establish the risk of infection with some waterborne diseases. There are also a suite of other water quality monitoring tools that have been prepared by the Water Research Commission that we will also introduce students and school learners to. One of the difficulties with these water quality monitoring tools for citizens, is that they seldom know what to do once the problem is identified.
The SARChI Chair in Ecosystem Health can share knowledge of how water can be disinfected to kill pathogens that may be present in the water supply and to prevent them from growing again in the distribution systems and to protect public health. The choice of the disinfect (e.g. chlorine or UV-radiation) depends upon the individual water quality and water supply system. Without disinfection, the risk from waterborne disease is increased. Links with RUBIC are possible around water purification devices. The team will also work with mobile phone applications that are currently being developed and used for water monitoring by Ground Truth and other partners, in order to expand their capacity for improved water quality monitoring. Strengthening capacity for tech development and use, we aim to work with young software developers at local institutions e.g. CTU Polokwane. The App should be able to upload the miniSASS results, the specific location, photos of any visible changes in water quality (e.g. change in turbidity), fish kills, etc. and also share knowledge of what to do.
Partners and networks:
LEDET and DWA, as well as AWARD who are very active with citizen engagement in the Olifants and Limpopo Basin, will be able to assist to select sites which may include some of their monitoring sites. LEDET and DWA will benefit from the continuous and more frequent monitoring of rivers. SAEON and AWARD are some of the networks who will have interest in such a community project and who will collaborate on different levels. The project will also collaborate with the SARChI Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems at RU and the national survey on citizen science for community-based water quality monitoring, to establish how these practices can be scaled and improved from a knowledge and practice point of view nationally. Other partners will be the Centre for Environmental Water Quality in the IWR at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, who are also developing scientific practice to inform citizen engagement with water quality concerns. In collaboration with Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 we will be involved in curriculum development to ensure and strengthen sustainable development knowledge flow and uptake in the curriculum at under, and post-graduate levels, and also to inform school-based water quality monitoring.
Professor Wilmien Luus-Powell
Prof Luus-Powell holds a SARChI Chair in Ecosystem Health at the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Limpopo. She does extensive research on water quality and pollution impacts on ecosystem health. In this CoP her work will contribute to the theme of clean water, and ecological infrastructure restoration. She will aim to make some of the scientific insights from her research more accessible to the public via co-design and use of citizen science tools that can advance existing citizen science engagement with water pollution issues and risks, especially also solution seeking approaches at a practical, community level. She will work with Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网's IWR and SARChI Chair in global change to advance community-based water quality monitoring approaches in South Africa, also sharing this knowledge into curriculum innovations for universities and schools.
Last Modified: Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:38:48 SAST