THE Wise Wayz Water Care teams received introductory training to water ecology and why fresh, clean, useable water is important.
The training was funded by the AECI Community Education and Development Trust and provided by GroundTruth over two days last month.
Additional logistical support was provided by Acacia Operations Services, a major land holder in the Umbogintwini area.
Six years ago, Folweni community members decided not to be victims of the consequence of poor river health and started working together to clean the river. ImproChem, a subsidiary of AECI, was made aware of the community’s efforts to take ownership of their local water resources, and decided to assist in their efforts and the Wise Wayz Water Care project was launched in April.
The 140-plus team members were divided into smaller groups for the training. The theoretical module covered topics such as the biosphere and the water cycle; what a catchment is, and the different components of a catchment, including wetlands, seeps and estuaries; and the interaction between living and non-living components associated with aquatic ecosystems. The theory was rounded off by looking at the human impacts on our precious water resources.
Day two of the training saw the teams going into the field to learn more about the citizen science tools used to assess and monitor water quality where they are working. The first tool they learnt about was miniSASS, which uses macroinvertebrates (small bugs) living in the water to give an indication of river health.
Teams were taught how to collect a sample of the bugs in different parts of the river using a net. The teams then worked in pairs to identify the different bugs in their sample using a simple identification key. The bugs living in the water have different tolerance levels to oxygen in the water, which provides an indication of the pollution level of the water.
The more oxygen they need, the more sensitive they are. Bugs that are very sensitive have a high score, and those that are less sensitive have lower scores.
Once the teams determined what bugs they found, they could score the health of the river. Once the score was determined, teams learned how to upload the score to the miniSASS website.
“The teams all found the site in Umbogintwini to be in a good condition, which was great news,” said GroundTruth’s Kirsten Mahood. “They even managed to find a stonefly – the most sensitive of the bugs used in miniSASS.”
The final tool that the teams were able to use and test was the E.coli dipstick. With increased sewage landing in rivers, and the massive issue of disposable nappies that end up in the river, E coli is becoming more and more of an issue for communities living near to rivers.
The E.coli dipstick is a quick and easy to use indicator of the level of E.coli in the river. The teams were taught that if the test comes back with a very high count of E.coli further investigation would be necessary to determine the source of the contamination. They were also advised to contact their local municipality to assist with the problem.
“The AECI Community and Education Development Trust provided funding so that all teams will receive the citizen science tools they were introduced to during the training. These tools will be used to set up a monitoring programme where they are working to reduce the solid waste and alien invasive plants in their local communities. It is hoped they will be able to show positive results in improved water quality as their work continues,” said Kirsten.
“Through this project we hope people will find better ways to put food on the table, use the information and experience they are getting and at the same time, take care of the environment for them and future generations,” said one of the team members, Lucky Nombika.
“We want to take this knowledge and educate our community and our society. Also to protect our environment because it is important to everybody as we don’t have another environment to use if we don’t take care of what we have,” said another, Sbongile Gumede.
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