Citizen Science workshop bridges the gap in Alex
SANBI empowers Alex residents through citizen science for aquatic ecosystem conservation.
Alex residents, scientists, and traditional healers came together for the Citizen Science training workshop held at the Tourism Hub in Alexandra on June 19–20.
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The initiative aimed at preserving aquatic ecosystems while honouring traditional healing practices was hosted by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in partnership with the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and Nature Speaks and Responds (NSR).
SANBI principal specialist Danisile Cindi Mavimbela said, “This workshop aims to bridge the gap between conventional science, indigenous knowledge, traditional healing practices, and capacity development for collecting data on our river status which is where the DWS comes in.
“The process for which we convene these workshops is a social learning process which allows stakeholders to engage meaningfully in the conservation and management of aquatic ecosystems as well as shifting paradigms because we believe there is no higher knowledge than the other,” Mavimbela said.
The session’s first day was less talking and more practice, with participants heading to the Jukskei River.
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Department of Water and Sanitation Adapt-a-River/Citizen Science national monitoring programme coordinator Noloyiso Xoliswa Mbiza said they managed to take some samples even though the river was in poor condition.
“The clarity cube measurements indicated a critical situation that calls for community members to go to the catchments and find the pollution sources. The situation of the Jukskei River calls for us, as citizens, to go and investigate and solve the problem. We also did a velocity reading to check how fast the water flows.
“The results were that the water flows very fast and my question was: Where does the water, that causes the river to flow at a high speed, come from, while it’s not even raining? And that was verified by this morning [June 20], when we got there and found the water was red and coming from a storm water drain at a very high rate,” Mbiza said.
She said residents should be aware of the impact of the water that they are using, especially traditional healers, because they use water systems daily to perform their rituals.
A traditional healer who participated in the programme, Gogo Patricia ‘Ndumandumane’ Baloyi, said traditional healers should protect the environment where they perform rituals.
“As traditional healers, we should be mindful that there are people who are drinking water from the Jukskei River and our children swim in that same river so when we are performing our rituals there we should have plastic bags that we will use to throw away the things that we were using and stop polluting the river,” Baloyi said.
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