Water programme aims to educate students, create water literacy

5th September 2014

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

Font size: - +

The Berg River Partnership (BRP) has piloted the 2020 Vision for Water Education Programme (VFWEP) at ten schools in the Berg river area, in the Western Cape, as part of its youth initiative.

The BRP, in partnership with the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), aims to improve water quality along the Berg river and comprises more than 30 stakeholders.

The 2020 VFWEP was launched by the then Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in 2006.

The ongoing programme, which has a budget of R1.5-million for the 2014/15 financial year, aims to educate learners and educators on the value of water and rivers, thus empowering them to ensure future generations have access to safe, clean water.

Improving water quality has been identified as a key challenge in the Berg river catchment area, as farmers and residents living along the river – mainly from informal settlements – continue to infect the river with pesticides and household chemicals through negligent behaviour such the dumping of garbage and waste products.

The Berg river spans about 294 km along the catchment area, which comprises ten towns, including Franschhoek, Wellington and Velddrif.

The VFWEP encourages disadvantaged youths in the Berg river area to work together with their schools to make a positive difference to the environment and their communities.

The programme further encourages them to enter competitions, which could result in winning awards and bursaries and, possibly, securing a permanent job at the DWS in future.

“While much effort is being made to work with our registered stakeholders to improve the water quality of the Berg river, we need to work actively together with our youth and citizens, as water affects all of us and our future. Water is life and must be respected, conserved and enjoyed; however, we must first protect it if it is to be sustained into the future,” says BRP spokesperson Derril Daniels.

DWS 2020 VFWEP Western Cape regional coordinator Sabelo Magaqana tells Engineering News that one of the key objectives of the initiative is to promote behavioural change among consumers regarding water use and value through water literacy programmes and public education campaigns.

Further, the VFWEP will promote careers in the water sector at schools and provide opportunities for the youth to pursue them. It will also help raise awareness of climate change issues.

“The cornerstone of our public water education and career promotions initiative is our education support programme, which aims to provide water education for all schools in the country. Our vision is that every learner and educator in South Africa will have access to water and climate change education across all education bands,” says Magaqana.

The key pillars of the VFWEP include the development of curriculum-aligned resource materials for water and climate change education and the empowerment of subject advisers and educators on the value and use of water.

Following the pilot programmes, the next phase of the 2020 VFWEP will be to ensure that schools are actively involved in the DWS’s programmes and that they become water ambassadors.

Winning schools of the VFWEP competitions will form part of the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Southern Africa Eco-Schools programme. They will also undertake water projects in a three-year cycle and produce a portfolio of evidence, which will then be used to compete against other winning schools.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION