Locals become data gatherers to improve South Africa's water

DW (English)

South Africa's water quality has been heavily impacted by aging infrastructure, corruption and drought. Citizens have been given water testing kits to record data and help scientists tackle the country's long-standing issues.

Transcript

00:00This water looks clean enough, but at least once a year, Ferial Adam takes samples to

00:14check for bacteria infestation in Johannesburg's Emmerinche Dam. E. coli is particularly common

00:21and extremely dangerous.

00:22If it turns black, like that, it's positive for bacteria. So it's a whole range of bacteria.

00:34It's the E. coli, it's the coliform which is from dead plants, animals.

00:41The additional Petri film test takes 36 hours and confirms the presence of E. coli bacteria,

00:48which probably got there from an overflowing sewer.

00:52Water pollution is an increasing problem in South Africa, with sewage often flowing from

00:56homes and factories into lakes and rivers with little or no filtration due to dysfunctional

01:02infrastructure, and the problem is exacerbated by heavy rainfall and other extreme weather

01:07events.

01:09The data that the authorities do regularly publish on water quality is too general, which

01:14is what prompted Ferial Adam to set up WaterCan three years ago, an organisation that enables

01:19residents to do their own tests.

01:21The difference with our kit is it gives you localised information. So this point, this

01:27stream, this community's tap water, and that's what's the difference. Because when you look

01:31at the results that's been submitted to national from local government, it doesn't specify

01:36where, it gives you an overall result.

01:39Environmental water quality is a vital issue for people like Klebilo Masika living in the

01:43Vaal region. It's home to a range of mines extracting heavy metals, which other WaterCan

01:49tests can detect too.

01:51The problem that I saw is that we have, Asenamita is the biggest giant polluting industry. There

01:58is a drainage dome that is running through to the streams. So we have to test that water

02:03because we are no longer getting fishes there.

02:06The tests are provided by WaterCan at low cost and free of charge for schools or people

02:12on modest incomes. Cleaner water for all means, the more citizen science activists, the better.

02:19Let's be informed as ordinary people. Let's create that noise about the pollution. Because

02:25when you create that noise, you start forcing change and people start realising that they

02:30have to be part of the solution.

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