Uploaded on 2018-03-15 by Tim Ewart

The concerns and interests of citizens are coming to the forefront nowadays with the awareness that a liveable city does not only consist of good infrastructure and sustainable energy supply but also citizen input and feedback. In South Africa, there is a big problem of sewage flowing into local dams and affecting water quality. The bigger picture is that the state of South Africa’s water resources is dire. With over 40% of the country’s rivers critically endangered, urgent focus is clearly needed. The good news is that a new era of water resource monitoring may be just around the corner. A new project called, the Citizen Science Catchment Toolkit Project is developing and testing a collection of water-monitoring tools and “interventions” that can be used by ordinary people. Graham envisages this toolkit making it possible for water and weather data to be collected by citizens on a grand scale, using simple tools, the Internet and smartphone app technology. The toolkit project and the Adopt a River (AaR) Programme are the result of a decision made by the government some years ago to use a bottom-up approach to monitoring water in the country.