Water quality of the Vaal River has been severely affected over the past years by pollution, mainly sewage.
Although various factors affect water quality, it is evident that living organisms in the Vaal River are surviving, although not thriving. In this regard, the need for citizen scientists has never been more important than now to keep authorities accountable.

Citizen Science is the collection of data and information by local people in their own environment.

The Citizen Science Pilot project, launched in the Vredefort Dome in 2025, will be one of the topics to be discussed at the Blue Deal Workshop hosted in Cape Town this week, highlighting the significance of regular, reliable data capturing with access to sampling points to speed up scientific research.

Notable success achieved with the project has resulted in the Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site currently being one of the most densely monitored areas in South Africa.

Not only are landowners and students of the Northwest University actively involved as guardians of the environment, but the programme also serves as a learning exercise for both the South African and Dutch water authorities on how citizens can be involved in having a closer look at their environment, collecting data for Catchment Agencies.

Blue Deal: Encouraging conversation and sharing knowledge

The Blue Deal Project, with its 17 partnerships in 15 countries, was launched in South Africa in 2020 to improve water quality.

The Vredefort Dome project is one of four in SA, giving the area the benefit of the partnership between the Dutch Water Authorities and SA Water Institutions.

Objectives of the project are based on the National Water and Sanitation Masterplan, aiming for an overall impact of allowing 2.5 million people to have better access to clean and sufficient water by2030.

Currently, the project is at the end of the second phase, with the final phase starting in 2027.

The three main activities of the Blue Deal project focus on data management, stakeholder engagement, and wastewater management.

For the Vredefort Dome/Parys area, this includes optimising the Parys Waste WaterTreatment Plant.

“The Dutch Water Authorities, for the project, mainly focused on knowledge and experience exchange, as sharing information with the community and communicating with them is central to the project’s success,” Blue Deal’s Eric Kuindersma explained.

“That said, it is essential to couple community engagement with education to empower communities to make a lasting contribution to the well-being of our rivers and streams,” he added.

In the Vredefort Dome, this resulted in land owners co-operating in giving access to sampling points, and actively participating in the Citizen Science project.

Sampling in the Vredefort Dome

Orgininally sampling for nitrates,ammonium, and phosphates was done weekly, but has since been agreed onbi-weekly sampling.

All data collected is submitted on the Deltares AqualityApp, monitored and managed by the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation.

Benefit for conservation

The programme succeeded in encouraging community involvement in conservation and assists in managementdecisions on threats, where non compliance is evident from the data captured with regular sampling.

* Apart from the Vredefort Dome, Blue Deal Projects in SA were launched at the Crocodile River, Blesbokspruit, the Msunduzi-Umgeni River and in Theewaterskloof.

A new Declaration of Intent between the SA and Dutch Water Authorities will be signed this week for the final phase of the Blue Deal partnership.