GEORGE NEWS - Georgians are invited to take part in a national citizen science project together with the Garden Route Dam Action Group (Gardag).
The national State of Rivers (SoR) Report is to be written by the University of KwaZulu-Natal and GroundTruth, but an opportunity exists to write a local SoR, which the Garden Route Dam Action Group (Gardag) wants to undertake.
"Gardag invites citizens of George to participate in the project. Anybody - retired professionals, teachers, students or schools - with an interest in the state of our rivers can participate," says chairperson Desireé du Preez.
Activities would range from undertaking water samples to data logging and report writing. Training is available.
The university and GroundTruth are collaborating to undertake this project commissioned by the Water Research Commission, with funding from Unicef on the State of Citizen Science for Water Quality Monitoring in Southern Africa.
The project aims to generate data to inform sustainable development goals (SDGs) reporting, specifically targeting SDG 6.3.2, which deals with monitoring of water bodies with good ambient water quality, while a national State of Rivers Report from a citizen science perspective will be generated.
The report will address another critical dimension in meeting SDG target 6.b: 'Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management'.
Data collection needed
According to GroundTruth, Stats SA in 2019 reported that South Africa's reporting ability on this indicator has been reduced by the lack of data, limited monitoring because of lack of funding and resource mobilisation, and to a certain degree the inability to coordinate monitoring across various sectors, government departments and public sector institutions.
"This lack of monitoring has impacted on the Blue and Green Drop standards, in which the requirement for monitoring has been removed. This is of great concern, as monitoring is key to understanding water quality," says Du Preez.
Gardag is participating in this project by undertaking monitoring in the six major rivers of the George area: Gwaiing, Schaapkop, Meul, Swart, Kaaimans and Touw.
The Gwaiing and Kaaimans are important rivers for fish breeding.
Despite the ecological importance of these rivers, the Western Cape Government's 2019 report in the Gwaiing River Estuarine Management Plan says, “There are no known ecological monitoring or research programmes (eg, fish or birds, etc) currently being undertaken for the Gwaiing River estuary. Currently there is no compliance monitoring taking place on the Gwaiing River estuary due the remoteness of the estuary."
Golf day
Gardag is hosting a golf day on 15 August to raise funds toward purchasing monitoring kits. To participate in any of these activities, write an email to admin@gardag.org.za. Gardag volunteers will be quick to respond.
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