Ready, steady, monitor!

Abstract

On 18 October World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) will be celebrated in countries all over the globe, including South Africa. WWMD is an international education and outreach programme, which was initiated by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA). The programme builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging ordinary people, and especially school children, to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies. The organisers have made available an easy-to-use kit, which enables everyone, from children to adults, to sample local water bodies for a core set of water quality parameters, including temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity) and dissolved oxygen. Following the monitoring period (18 September to 18 October) results are collected, analysed and shared with participating communities through the WWMD website ( monitoringday.org). The timeframe for monitoring was selected to foster consistency in monitoring dates across the world.

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