Cleaning rivers, one at a time
Ayanda Lipheyana is the recipient of the Wessa Youth Award for 2017, for his innovative work among communities. Myrtle Ryan chatted to him
WATER quality and equity are crucial issues in water-deprived South Africa. Ayanda Lipheyana is playing a vital role in bringing the message home. His talents have not been confined to South Africa. He visited Ethiopia to assist the AU/EU youth in a special initiative involving environment preservation and climate change. He also mentored young people in making a presentation at the 5th Africa-europe Summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in November.
So what stream of life has Lipheyana himself followed? The 31-year-old, who has two sisters and three brothers, attended Asibemunye High School, a disadvantaged school in Mpophomeni Township in the KZN Midlands. “I wouldn’t say growing up was easy, but it was better than the normal Mpophomeni childhood experience,” he recalls. His father is a school headmaster and his stepmother a caregiver.
Lipheyana is currently in his third year of a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Management, majoring in chemistry through the University of South Africa. The environment would not have been his first choice. After finishing Grade 12 in 2007, he dreamt of studying medicine, but did not meet the minimum entrance requirement. He completed a medicine bridging course (under the Science Foundation Programme at the University of Kwazulu-natal) but he still didn’t meet the criteria.
Tired of being idle at home, he registered for a BSC foundation programme in 2013 and in the same year began working among the communities of Mpophomeni and Howick.
“I was a volunteer for Mpophomeni Environmental Champions, which addresses potable water loss, sewer line monitoring, and informal dump-site monitoring. It falls under a bigger project – the Save Midmar umngeni Ecological Infrastructure Partnership,” he explained.
“This was an eye-opener for me because I was doing theory work with my studies, while being in action championing the environment in Mpophomeni. I fell in love with the environment.”
Within a year he was appointed supervisor of the Champions. “My duties were to meet municipal councillors and authorities, as well as community members and to run Saturday river walks with young kids twice a month,” he said.
Lipheyana stimulated them by demonstrating science tools such as MINISASS, clarity tube and velocity plank for river health testing.
Though in 2016 he began working for Groundtruth Water, Wetlands and Environmental Engineering Company, he continued to support the Save Midmar project.
Asked how he interacted with the community, he said: “My approach is not to tell people what to do, but to use a mutual learning tactic. I try to make people understand how important water is and engage with them in trying to identify water-related challenges, and possible solutions.”
Naming just some of the ideals of the Save Midmar project, he mentioned boosting civic awareness of the value of the environment and the sanctity of communal land. It encouraged civic interventions which would improve the environment and conducted education programmes – working with schools through Ecoschools, developing resources and printed materials for use in schools, river walks and drama productions.
Seeing a polluted river made him sad, but it was essential to engage with the community to understand the root cause of the problem. Through door-todoor surveys they found that some people cannot make the connection between humans and rivers, “because some of them think water comes from a tap”.
Some areas were not well serviced by their municipality in terms of waste collection. Consequently the community believe the only solution is to throw their rubbish into the river. In such instances, champions like Lipheyana try to engage both the municipality and community in possible solutions.
Wessa (Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa) began sponsoring the Save Midmar project, and Lipheyana began attending many of their training courses. Through them he was able to obtain a USAID bursary to do an accredited Level 5 Environmental Educators Course. This not only helped him identify problems but possible solutions – with community involvement.
He recalls walking from the source of the Karkloof River to its confluence with the Umgeni River, over six days. Along the way, participants took measurements and using the tools of their trade assessed the condition of the river. This project was a collaboration between the Karkloof Conservancy, Worldwide Fund for Nature, SA (WWF-SA), the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and Groundtruth.
Broadening his horizons, he began collaborating with WWF-SA on a community sustainable water resource project across South Africa.
“This project has gained momentum step by step, and it was my part in this project which led Wessa to giving me the 2017 National Award for Youth,” he said.
The Stream Assessment Scoring System (minisass) is an easy way to monitor the health of a river. Here’s how it works: Collect a minisass sample of macro-invertebrates (small animals) from the water. By checking if certain bugs are present in the stream, one can establish the health of the river. There are five categories ranging from natural (blue) to very poor (purple).
Using a reference sheet relating to insects, the River Health Index can be calculated from 13 common water insects. For example, a blue crab means a healthy stream, a red one a poor one. The results can be placed on the minisass Google Earth layer (www.minisass. org) and it is possible to chart how rivers change over time, improving or getting worse.
A field-based mobile phone “app” is being developed to help with recording the site and identifying insects (invertebrates). The beta version of the app can be downloaded from www.minisass.mobi