Cape Town – The World Wildlife Fund South Africa (WWF-SA) is launching a citizen-science project to understand what happened to Cape Town's aquifers.
During last year’s drought, many households and businesses switched to using alternate sources of water such as grey water, rain water and groundwater.
Groundwater is a shared and hidden resource that has built up over hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years.
With the expansion of current use, WWF-SA said it was unknown whether residents were using groundwater at a sustainable rate or at a rate that threatened its viability over the long term.
“What is known is that Cape Town will need groundwater to get through the inevitability of another drought, and over-extraction of groundwater could be a critical threat to water availability during a time of crisis.
“This is why WWF-SA has appointed groundwater experts Geoss to look at existing information to build a more holistic picture, setting up monitoring data-loggers in selected locations, starting in Newlands and the Airport Industrial area.
"The study will involve home owners, site managers, pupils, students and businesses in a broad-based citizen science programme to build a clearer picture of what is happening to groundwater over the long term,” WWF-SA said.
Christine Colvin, a senior manager of WWF South Africa's freshwater programmes, said it was critical to understand more about the health of groundwater supply and how the aquifer responded to pumping and rainfall.
“We need to pool our information to plan for the ‘new normal’, which includes the inevitability of more droughts,” Colvin said.
WWF-SA said it liked to involve home-owners, site managers, pupils, students and businesses in the broad-based citizen science programme.
For more information, contact Janine Titus at WWF-SA [email protected] or 021 657 6600 or Dale Barrow at [email protected]