Pupils crusade for water conservation

THE quality of the Molweni River water was the focus of attention for a group of Kloof High School pupils last week who participated in the Kloof Conservancy’s river health school project, the Molweni River Health School Project, which assesses the quality of river water.

Since February 2013, seven high schools in the Molweni River Catchment area have been involved in a bi-annual sampling of the Molweni River and some of its tributaries.

According to Kloof Conservancy chairman Paolo Candotti, the aim of the project is to provide an opportunity for pupils to learn about the importance of water resources in a practical, fun and innovative way.

The Highway Mail accompanied Kloof High School’s testing team to their sampling point (Ronald’s Kloof stream), where they collected water samples and used the miniSASS system to evaluate the river water.

The miniSASS is a tool, based on the logic that river-dwelling invertebrates are primary indicators of water quality and river health, which allows communities and individuals to measure and monitor the health and general water quality of a river, explained Candotti.

“It is a simplified test, developed to get the community involved in the basic evaluation of a river’s health. It is not a perfect or full test, and therefore cannot provide an indication of the river water’s sanitation,” he added.

The water samples collected by the pupils will be analysed by Metro Water in order to determine the E-coli count, pH level of the water and other parameters that cannot be determined by the miniSASS.

After collecting the water samples, teams converged at the Interpretive Centre at Krantzkloof Nature Reserve where all the results were compared.

“The project has been very interesting. It helped us become more aware of our environment and water conservation. It has improved our general knowledge, as well as our knowledge with regards to biology and geography,” said Kaera Guptar, a Grade 11 pupil.

“It proved to us that we need to be educated about water and its quality. We may not be aware that the river has been polluted upstream,” added Jennifer McCall, a fellow pupil.

Candotti said the sampling conducted in February by the Kloof High School’s testing team on the Ronald’s Kloof Stream just below where the stream crosses Alamein Avenue from Memorial Park is of great concern, as it indicated that the stream has a very high E-coli count. Tests conducted by the honorary officers of Krantzkloof Nature Reserve have confirmed this high count over a number of years.

“We really want the community to be aware of the quality of the water as well as their impact on the water,” said Candotti.