Water, Land and Ecosystems - South Africa

Social change innovations, citizen science, miniSASS and the SDGs

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 12:41:38 +0000

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Authors

Taylor, J.
Graham, M.
Louw, A.
Lepheana, A.
Madikizela, B.
Dickens, Chris
Chapman, D. V.
Warner, S.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe a course of action to address poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). More specifically, SDG 6 clarifies how water quality, quantity and access are crucial to human well-being, and yet human activities are compromising water resources through over-exploitation, pollution, as well as contributing to the spread of disease. Globally aquatic ecosystems are highly threatened and concerted efforts by governments and civil society to ‘turn the situation around’ are simply not working. Human-created problems require human-centred solutions and these require different ways of thinking and acting to those behaviour patterns that are contributing to the challenges. In this paper, we first consider causal approaches to attitude change and behaviour modification that are simply not working as intended. We then explore enabling responses such as citizen science and co-engaged action learning as more tenable alternatives. SDG 6 has a focus on clean water and sanitation for all. The SDGs further clarify how the extent to which this goal can be realized depends, to a large extent, on stakeholder engagements and education. Through stakeholder engagements and educational processes, people can contribute towards SDG 6 and the specific indicator and target in SDG 6.b – Stakeholder participation. Following a three-year research process, that investigated a wide range of participatory tools, this paper explores how the Stream Assessment Scoring System (miniSASS; www.minisass.org) can enable members of the public to engage in water quality monitoring at a local level. The paper continues to demonstrate how miniSASS can contribute to the monitoring of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.3, by providing a mechanism for data collection indicator 6.3.2. miniSASS is proving popular in southern Africa as a methodology for engaging stakeholder participation in water quality monitoring and management. The technique costs very little to implement and can be applied by children and scientists alike. As a biomonitoring approach, it is based on families of macroinvertebrates that are present in most perennial rivers of the world. The paper concludes by describing how useful the miniSASS technique can be for addressing data gaps for SDG 6.3.2 reporting, and that it can be applied in most regions of the world.

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Taylor, J.; Graham, M.; Louw, A.; Lepheana, A.; Madikizela, B.; Dickens, Chris; Chapman, D. V.; Warner, S. 2022. Social change innovations, citizen science, miniSASS and the SDGs. Water Policy, 24(5):708-717. [doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2021.264]

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/115277

Global groundwater: source, scarcity, sustainability, security, and solutions

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 12:41:38 +0000

TypeBook

Languageen

Authors

Mukherjee, A.
Scanlon, Bridget R.
Aureli, A.
Langan, Simon J.
Guo, H.
McKenzie, A. A.

Citation

Mukherjee, A.; Scanlon, B. R.; Aureli, A.; Langan, Simon; Guo, H.; McKenzie, A. A. (Eds.) 2021. Global groundwater: source, scarcity, sustainability, security, and solutions. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. 676p.

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Limited Access

Research Themes

Variability, Risks and Competing Uses

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111566

Integration of hydrogeophysical and geological investigations in enhancing groundwater potential assessment in Houtriver gneiss crystalline basement formation of South Africa

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 12:36:32 +0000

Regions

Southern Africa

TypeJournal Article

Subjects

Groundwater
Hydrology
Innovation

Languageen

Authors

Muchingami, I.
Mkali, A.
Vinqi, L.
Pietersen, K.
Xu, Y.
Whitehead, R.
Karsten, J.
Villholth, Karen
Kanyerere, T.

Groundwater exploration in crystalline basement aquifers such as the Houtriver gneiss formation in the Limpopo province of South Africa is often described as complex. This is because groundwater availability in such aquifers is largely a consequence of the interaction of several processes related to recharge, underlying geological features and fracture connectivity of the aquifer rock matrix. In this study, an integration of geophysical and geological investigations is applied in inferring potential drill targets within the Houtriver gneiss crystalline basement aquifer system. Results from the magnetic and frequency domain electromagnetic surveys were combined with geological investigations to identify sites where vertical electrical resistivity sounding was applied to infer the thickness and layering of weathered and fractured zones, as well as to identify potential targets where test boreholes were drilled. Constructed geo-resistivity pseudo-sections suggested that groundwater occurrence within this formation is described by a heterogeneous multiple-layered and fractured aquifer system with the main groundwater bearing zones ranging from a depth of 30–72m in most cases. Ten potential drill sites were identified from which three test boreholes were drilled and used to validate the results through a lithostratigraphic conceptual model developed from the correlation of the geophysical results with drill logs. The integration of hydro-geophysical and geological methods thus provided a comprehensive approach for resource assessment in the Houtriver gneiss formation.

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Muchingami, I.; Mkali, A.; Vinqi, L.; Pietersen, K.; Xu, Y.; Whitehead, R.; Karsten, J.; Villholth, Karen; Kanyerere, T. 2021. Integration of hydrogeophysical and geological investigations in enhancing groundwater potential assessment in Houtriver gneiss crystalline basement formation of South Africa. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. 123(2021):103009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2021.103009

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/116814

Solutions

Productivity

Joint strategic action plan for the Ramotswa Transboundary Aquifer Area

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 12:38:51 +0000

TypeBrief

Languageen

Authors

Lazurko, Anita
Lautze, Jonathan F.
Villholth, Karen G.

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Lazurko, Anita; Lautze, Jonathan; Villholth, Karen G. 2020. Joint strategic action plan for the Ramotswa Transboundary Aquifer Area. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 8p.

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Open Access

Research Themes

Variability, Risks and Competing Uses

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/110879

The influence of groundwater abstraction on interpreting climate controls and extreme recharge events from well hydrographs in semi-arid South Africa

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 11:36:32 +0000

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Authors

Sorensen, J. P. R.
Davies, J.
Ebrahim, Girma Y.
Lindle, J.
Marchant, B. P.
Ascott, M. J.
Bloomfield, J. P.
Cuthbert, M. O.
Holland, M.
Jensen, K. H.
Shamsudduha, M.
Villholth, Karen G.
MacDonald, A. M.
Taylor, R. G.

There is a scarcity of long-term groundwater hydrographs from sub-Saharan Africa to investigate groundwater sustainability, processes and controls. This paper presents an analysis of 21 hydrographs from semi-arid South Africa. Hydrographs from 1980 to 2000 were converted to standardised groundwater level indices and rationalised into four types (C1–C4) using hierarchical cluster analysis. Mean hydrographs for each type were cross-correlated with standardised precipitation and streamflow indices. Relationships with the El Nino– Southern Oscillation (ENSO) were also investigated. The four hydrograph types show a transition of autocorrelation over increasing timescales and increasingly subdued responses to rainfall. Type C1 strongly relates to rainfall, responding in most years, whereas C4 notably responds to only a single extreme event in 2000 and has limited relationship with rainfall. Types C2, C3 and C4 have stronger statistical relationships with standardised streamflow than standardised rainfall. C3 and C4 changes are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated to the mean wet season ENSO anomaly, indicating a tendency for substantial or minimal recharge to occur during extreme negative and positive ENSO years, respectively. The range of different hydrograph types, sometimes within only a few kilometres of each other, appears to be a result of abstraction interference and cannot be confidently attributed to variations in climate or hydrogeological setting. It is possible that high groundwater abstraction near C3/C4 sites masks frequent small-scale recharge events observed at C1/C2 sites, resulting in extreme events associated with negative ENSO years being more visible in the time series.

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Sorensen, J. P. R.; Davies, J.; Ebrahim, Girma Y.; Lindle, J.; Marchant, B. P.; Ascott, M. J.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Cuthbert, M. O.; Holland, M.; Jensen, K. H.; Shamsudduha, M.; Villholth, Karen G.; MacDonald, A. M.; Taylor, R. G. 2021. The influence of groundwater abstraction on interpreting climate controls and extreme recharge events from well hydrographs in semi-arid South Africa. Hydrogeology Journal, 29(8):2773-2787. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-021-02391-3]

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/115228

Integrated management of multiple water sources for multiple uses: rural communities in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 11:36:32 +0000

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Authors

Koppen, Barbara C.M. van
Hofstetter, Moritz
Nesamvuni, A. E.
Chiluwe, Q.

This study fills a knowledge gap about low-income rural communities’ holistic management of multiple water resources to meet their multiple needs through multiple or single-use infrastructure. Six low-income rural villages in Limpopo Province were selected with a diversity in: service levels, surface and groundwater resources, public infrastructure (designed for either domestic uses or irrigation but multiple use in reality) and self-supply (people’s individual or communal investments in infrastructure). Focusing on water-dependent livelihoods and water provision to homesteads, distant fields and other sites of use, three policy-relevant patterns were identified. First, most households have two or more sources of water to their homesteads as a vital buffer to irregular supplies and droughts. Second, infrastructure to homesteads is normally for domestic uses, livestock and, for many households, irrigation for consumption and sale. Public infrastructure to irrigate distant fields is multiple use. Exceptionally, self-supply point sources to distant fields are single use. Water bodies to other sites of use are normally multiple use. As for large-scale infrastructure, multiple-use infrastructure is cost-effective and water-efficient. Third, in four of the six villages people’s self-supply is a more important water source to homesteads than public infrastructure. In all villages, water provided through self-supply is shared. Self-supply improves access to water faster, more cost-effectively and more sustainably than public services do. In line with international debates, self-supply is there to stay and can be supported as a cost-effective and sustainable complementary mode of service delivery. A last potential policy implication regards community-driven planning, design and construction of water infrastructure according to people’s priorities. This may sustainably harness the above-mentioned advantages and, moreover, communities’ ability to manage complex multiple sources, uses and multiple-use infrastructure, whether public or self-supply, as a matter of daily life.

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van Koppen, Barbara; Hofstetter, Moritz; Nesamvuni, A. E.; Chiluwe, Q. 2020. Integrated management of multiple water sources for multiple uses: rural communities in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Water SA, 46(1):1-11. [doi: https://doi.org/10.17159/wsa/2020.v46.i1.7870]

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Open Access

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114494

Guidelines for community-led multiple use water services: evidence from rural South Africa

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 11:37:41 +0000

TypeWorking Paper

Languageen

Authors

Koppen, Barbara C.M. van
Molose, V.
Phasha, K.
Bophela, T.
Modiba, I.
White, M.
Magombeyi, Manuel S.
Jacobs-Mata, Inga

The African Water Facility, together with the Water Research Commission, South Africa, as its implementing agent, supported the demonstration project Operationalizing community-led Multiple Use water Services (MUS) in South Africa. As knowledge broker and research partner in this project, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) analyzed processes and impacts at the local level, where the nongovernmental organization Tsogang Water and Sanitation demonstrated community-led MUS in six diverse rural communities in two of the poorest districts of South Africa, Sekhukhune and Vhembe districts - Ga Mokgotho, Ga Moela and Phiring in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, and Tshakhuma, Khalavha and Ha Gumbu in Vhembe District Municipality. In conventional water infrastructure projects, external state or non-state agencies plan, diagnose, design and prioritize solutions, mobilize funding, and implement the procurement of materials, recruitment of workers and construction. However, this MUS project facilitated decision-making by communities, and provided technical and institutional advice and capacity development. Based on IWMI’s evidence, tools and manuals, the project team organized learning alliances and policy dialogues from municipal to national level on the replication of community-led MUS by water services authorities; government departments of water, agriculture, and others; employment generation programs; climate and disaster management; and corporate social responsibility initiatives. This working paper synthesizes the lessons learned about the six steps of the community-led MUS process in all six communities. The step-wise process appeared to be welcome and effective across the board. The duration of the process and the costs of facilitation, technical and institutional capacity development, and engineering advice and quality control were comparable to conventional approaches. However, the respective responsibilities of the government and communities, also in longer-term co-management arrangements, depended on the type of infrastructure. Some communities were supported to improve their communal self supply systems. In other communities, the process enabled an extension of the reticulation of borehole systems owned, operated and maintained by municipalities. Almost all households used water supplies at homesteads for multiple purposes, underscoring synergies in cross-sectoral collaboration between the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and irrigation sectors.

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van Koppen, Barbara; Molose, V.; Phasha, K.; Bophela, T.; Modiba, I.; White, M.; Magombeyi, Manuel S.; Jacobs-Mata, Inga. 2020. Guidelines for community-led multiple use water services: evidence from rural South Africa. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 36p. (IWMI Working Paper 194) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2020.213]

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Open Access

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/110434

Process and benefits of community-led multiple use water services: comparing two communities in South Africa

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 11:37:41 +0000

TypeWorking Paper

Languageen

Authors

Koppen, Barbara C.M. van
Magombeyi, Manuel S.
Jacobs-Mata, Inga
Molose, V.
Phasha, K.
Bophela, T.
Modiba, I.
White, M.

The African Water Facility, together with the Water Research Commission, South Africa, as its implementing agent, supported the demonstration project Operationalizing community-led Multiple Use water Services (MUS) in South Africa. As knowledge broker and research partner in this project, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) analyzed processes and impacts at the local level, where the nongovernmental organization Tsogang Water and Sanitation demonstrated community-led MUS in six diverse rural communities in two of the poorest districts of South Africa, Sekhukhune and Vhembe districts - Ga Mokgotho, Ga Moela and Phiring in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, and Tshakhuma, Khalavha and Ha Gumbu in Vhembe District Municipality. In conventional water infrastructure projects, external state and non-state agencies plan, diagnose, design and prioritize solutions, mobilize funding, and implement the procurement of materials, recruitment of workers and construction. However, this MUS project facilitated decision-making by communities, and provided technical and institutional advice and capacity development. Based on IWMI’s evidence, tools and manuals, the project team organized learning alliances and policy dialogues from municipal to national level on the replication of community-led MUS by water services authorities; government departments of water, agriculture, and others; employment generation programs; climate and disaster management; and corporate social responsibility initiatives. This working paper reports on the local findings of Ga Mokgotho and Ga Moela villages, which had completed construction works. The paper presents an in-depth analysis from the preproject situation to each of the steps of the participatory process, and highlights the resulting benefits of more water, more reliable and sustainable supplies, and multiple benefits, including a 60% and 76% increase in the value of irrigated produce in Ga Mokgotho and Ga Moela, respectively. Women were the sole irrigation manager in 68% and 60% of the households in Ga Mokgotho and Ga Moela, respectively. The user satisfaction survey highlighted communities’ unanimous preference of the participatory process, capacity development and ownership compared to conventional approaches.

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van Koppen, Barbara; Magombeyi, Manuel S.; Jacobs-Mata, Inga; Molose, V.; Phasha, K.; Bophela, T.; Modiba, I.; White, M. 2020. Process and benefits of community-led multiple use water services: comparing two communities in South Africa. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 43p. (IWMI Working Paper 193) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2020.212]

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Open Access

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/110435

Diamonds on the soles of their feet: groundwater monitoring in the Hout Catchment, South Africa

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 11:35:41 +0000

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Authors

Goldin, J.
Mokomela, R.
Kanyerere, T.
Villholth, Karen G.

With the impulse to control and order the disorderly, the threads or tributaries of affect and emotion, which mimic the meanderings of the aquifer itself, are often oversimplified or ignored. These are not anomalies of citizen science (CS) but ‘normal’ and expected ‘disconnects’ that surface when working within a multidisciplinary environment. The article adds value to current discourse on CS by reflecting on the confusing configurations and shifting allegiances that are part and parcel of CS experience. In presenting research from a current project in the Hout Catchment, Limpopo Province in South Africa, it suggests that CS is often oversimplified and does not capture the array of emotions that emerge at multiple scales around CS projects. The authors reflect on the field, which is fraught, fragile and fleeting—and on the intrusions into the field—similar itself to an aquifer with its dykes and flows. Considering CS within the frame of feminist philosophy, it is emancipatory and personally transformative with the element of ‘surprise’ that the end point is undetermined—and the process, however much ‘planned’ is unknown. CS in this instance is a powerful tool for creating virtuous cycles of inclusion and equality and promoting sustainable development through improved water literacy through a grassroot, out-of-the-classroom pedagogy.

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Goldin, J.; Mokomela, R.; Kanyerere, T.; Villholth, Karen G. 2021. Diamonds on the soles of their feet: groundwater monitoring in the Hout Catchment, South Africa. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 15(1):25-50. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/09734082211014435]

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114091

The emergence of collectively owned self-supply water supply systems in rural South Africa – what can we learn from the Tshakhuma case in Limpopo?

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 11:35:41 +0000

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Authors

Hofstetter, Moritz
Koppen, Barbara C.M. van
Bolding, A.

Despite the rapid extension of public service delivery since the end of Apartheid, many rural citizens in South Africa still rely on their own initiatives and infrastructure to access water. They construct, improve, operate and maintain infrastructure of different complexities, from individual wells to complex collectively owned water schemes. While most of these schemes operate without legal recognition, they provide essential services to many households. In this article we will first provide an overview of the growing international body of literature describing self-supply as an alternative pathway for public service delivery. We then take a historical perspective on the role of communities and self-supply in South Africa and describe the emergence of six collectively owned, gravity-fed, piped schemes in Tshakhuma, Limpopo Province. We describe and compare these systems using key characteristics like resource access, investment, construction, operation, maintenance and institutional governance. We further assess their performance with regard to coverage, service level, reliability, governance structure, accountability and water quality. We do so because we are convinced that lessons learned from studying such schemes as locally adapted prototypes have the potential to improve public approaches to service delivery. The described cases show the willingness of community members to engage with service delivery and their ability to provide services in cases where the state has failed. The assessment also highlights problematic aspects of self-supply related to a lack of accountability, technical expertise and the exclusion of disadvantaged community members. By describing and assessing the performance of rural self-supply schemes, we aim to recognize, study and learn from such schemes. We consequently do not conclude this article by providing answers, but by raising some pertinent, policy-relevant questions.

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Hofstetter, Moritz; van Koppen, Barbara; Bolding, A. 2021. The emergence of collectively owned self-supply water supply systems in rural South Africa – what can we learn from the Tshakhuma case in Limpopo? Water SA, 47(2):253-263. [doi: https://doi.org/10.17159/wsa/2021.v47.i2.10921]

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Open Access

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https://hdl.handle.net/10568/113833