Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) recently held a Mini Stream Assessment Scoring System (MiniSASS) at Dorothy Nyembe with pupils from Enkolweni Primary, Boikanyo Primary, Dr Mary Malahlela Primary and St Angela’s Primary School.
MiniSASS is a method used to monitor the health of a river and measure the general quality of the water in that river.
The equipment list pupils used for the MiniSASS consist of nets, white containers, pencils, magnifying glass, shoes or gumboots and hand wash.
Pupils used the wetland at Dorothy Nyembe to determine if the water is healthy.
Working in groups, pupils were instructed to catch macro invertebrates that exist in water and through this activity they earned points.
Macro invertebrates are animals that have no backbone and can be seen with the naked eye.
Education officer Zanele Khumalo said the purpose of this drive was to teach and encourage pupils about water conservation to help save the lives of animals living in it.
Khumalo said: “There more animals pupils find in a river, there further points they would get.”
She said the exercise emphasises on the impact on macro invertebrates caused by polluting water.
“Fresh water is essential to all living organisms and this is what we taught pupils in the exercise,” said Khumalo.
