Many water-scarce municipalities in South Africa educate communities about conserving water and it is vital that residents in these areas be active players in the balancing act of ensuring water demand remains sustainable within the supply capacity of available groundwater aquifers, says multinational engineering consultancy SRK Consulting partner and principal hydrogeologist Gert Nel.

“Better youth awareness is one answer. The country, and the smaller rural towns in particular, are becoming increasingly reliant on groundwater to meet their daily needs. The challenge is that municipalities are often pursuing unsustainable levels of water abstraction from these aquifers without managing to control the demand side of the equation,” he points out.

Schools can be the source of science-based input on water resources and, among other areas, this could include groundwater. Children could take this information home and share it with their families, becoming a powerful channel for taking forward the national discussion about water.

“In my experience, one of the most receptive institutions to this kind of learning are schools where teachers are imparting a scientific approach to learners, and water is a topical and relevant everyday concern. Not only is water an interesting subject for learners in primary and secondary schools, but it also governs so much of what goes on around them, from personal health and hygiene to food, farming and other economic activity,” says Nel.

Further, from the perspective of the practitioners and the scientific community, there are many water professionals and academics who would be happy to contribute to school efforts like this. Practitioners and scientists could bring their own insights and experience to share with learners, helping to raise awareness while also initiating valuable discussions that could lead to longer-term solutions.

This kind of initiative could help publicise South Africa’s water-scarce status, while creating platforms for engagement for communities to participate in finding solutions. They could also inspire young learners to pursue further study and even a career in the groundwater sector, he suggests.

“There are very few hydrogeologists at local municipality or district municipality level. If local communities could begin to nurture an interest in this vital discipline, that would certainly help to fill a serious skills gap,” he says.

There have been efforts to raise awareness within communities, but the impact of these initiatives had not been very effective in the past. Going back as far as 2012 and earlier, the research was showing that water-related information was not really reaching communities in ways that it had any impact on behaviour, he notes.

“The knowledge and messages were being shared in ways that failed to galvanise action, such as by changing individuals’ or families’ water-use practices,” says Nel.

The research pointed to alternative ways of disseminating educational resources, emphasising that the focus needs to be on how they are disseminated and by whom, he adds.