Do you belong to a community group that is interested in the health of your local freshwater environment? We are pleased to offer tiered FreshWater Watch packages to groups who want to make a difference in their community by monitoring the health of their local water body. Some of the benefits of our packages include:
Many freshwater bodies are affected by pollution, as a result of nutrient run-off from nearby agriculture, industry or waste facilities. Our FreshWater Watch community groups test and monitor the status of their local water body, raising awareness of freshwater health and taking action to restore and protect it. Group members have access to water testing kits and our online platform, including instructional videos, global research data, and a mobile app to collect data easily in the field. For more details, please see our Information Pack.
Led by the Water Institute at Dublin City University, community members have been using FreshWater Watch to monitor the River Liffey. They have found big differences in water quality dependent on surrounding land use, and a high impact of rainfall. In addition to engaging and educating volunteers on water quality issues, this has initiated discussions with Dublin City Council and the Irish misconnections project exploring solutions to the problem of poorly-connected plumbing of new build homes.
FreshWater Watch is enabling communities in Africa to monitor freshwater quality and feed into national reporting for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are working with local NGOs, community groups and schools in Zambia, and their data is being used by the national Water Management Authority (WARMA) to increase coverage for SDG reporting. This project has also fed into a scientific publication encouraging a greater use of citizen science in SDG monitoring.
Through our projects, communities become more knowledgeable on local and global environmental challenges, and can change things for themselves and other communities in the area.
Professor Steven Loiselle — Senior Research Lead at Earthwatch Europe
Zoom into the map below to check if there is an existing group near you, or clic aici to view as a list. Click on a pin to read more about a group and contact them directly to express your interest.