Research Video: Community-based Water Quality Monitoring of Deka River in Zimbabwe
Désirée Ruppen, PhD candidate at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy at ETH Zurich, is currently working on a project called “Community-based water quality monitoring of Deka River in Zimbabwe”. The term “Community-based” means that scientists are working in close collaboration with community members who live along Deka River and are impacted by water pollution. Local communities have already initiated a mediation process in order to improve the environmental conditions.
The community monitoring is accomplished by using twelve community monitors, and the team of scientists, who visits the area every few months, conducts additional sampling, which complements the community efforts. Sampling results have clearly indicated that water from the river is not suitable for human consumption, mainly due to the presence of manganese and nickel that are potential toxic elements if they reach specific levels.
According to Désirée Ruppen, in such cases science has the potential to make a contribution to the improvement of a given situation. “You cannot resolve the problem, but you can support the process of finding an efficient solution,” she says. This project should give communities leverage when dealing with the companies during the mediation process.
- Find more information on the Swiss Minerals Observatory webpage.