Critical analysis of environmental water quality in South Africa Historic and current trends
- Authors: Griffin, Neil J , Palmer, Carolyn G , Scherman, Patricia A
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437812 , vital:73414 , ISBN 978-1-4312-0536-3 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/2184-1-14.pdf
- Description: South Africa is widely recognised as having an admirable water law, and as being a leader in granting a right to water, in terms of quality and quantity, to the environment. However, the water quality of South Afri-can water resources is deteriorating (eg CSIR 2010, DWA 2011a), alt-hough good water quality management structures, strategies, ap-proaches, programmes, instruments, and tools have been developed and implemented nationally. The research reported on here provides a review of changes in water quality management structures, pro-grammes and approaches over the past two decades, and highlights areas where these need updating, completion or revision. As a com-parative illustration of changes in water quality with time, changes in 11 water quality parameters in two river systems (the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga, which is moderately impacted, and the Olifants River, in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, which is severely impacted) are presented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
The development of water quality methods within ecological Reserve assessments, and links to environmental flows
- Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Rossouw, N , Muller, Nikite W J , Scherman, Patricia A
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438033 , vital:73430 , ISBN 0378-4738 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/WaterSA_2005_02_1634.pdf
- Description: In the South African National Water Act (NWA, No 36 of 1998), the eco-logical Reserve is defined as the quality and quantity of water required to ensure appropriate protection of water resources, so as to secure ecologically sustainable development and use. Aquatic ecosystems are recognised as the core location of water resources, and although con-siderable progress has been made in developing methods for quantify-ing environmental flow requirements, this paper describes and discuss-es the first agreed method for quantifying environmental water quality requirements in an ecological Reserve assessment. Integration of flow and water quality is emphasised, and is based on the philosophy that environmental flows should be motivated to provide ecologically im-portant flow-related habitat, or geomorphological function, but should not be motivated to solve water quality problems by dilution. Water qual-ity is multivariate, and not all variables can be considered in an ecologi-cal Reserve assessment, but core water quality variables include: sys-tem variables (salts, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, temperature), nutrients (phosphate, nitrite, nitrate) and toxic substances (those listed in the South African Water Quality Guidelines for Aquatic Ecosystems, includ-ing toxic metal ions, toxic organic substances, and/or substances from a chemical inventory of an effluent or discharge). In addition, biological indicator data (eg SASS data), chlorophyll-a (eg phytoplankton and pe-riphyton data) and toxicity test data may be used. For each variable, a concentration range or response is linked to a class within a water re-source classification system, where classes range from minimally to severely modified.
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- Date Issued: 2005
Early development of water quality methods and approaches in ecological Reserve assessments
- Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Scherman, Patricia A , Muller, Nikite W J , Rossouw, J N , Malan, H L , Jooste, S
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437840 , vital:73416 , ISBN 1-77005-227-5 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/1108-1-041.pdf
- Description: This project was initiated in 2000 to allow the ecological Reserve team for water quality to undertake additional research while working on eco-logical Reserve determinations funded by the Department of Water Af-fairs and Forestry. The results of this work form the basis of the meth-ods reported in the Water Research Commission report Hughes DA (Ed)(in press).
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- Date Issued: 2004
The development of a toxicity database using freshwater macroinvertebrates, and its application to the protection of South African water resources
- Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Muller, Wilhelmine J , Gordon, Andrew K , Scherman, Patricia A , Davies-Coleman, Heather D , Pakhomova, L , de Kock, E
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7073 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009528
- Description: There is a growing international trend towards the protection of freshwater resources from pollution by imposing instream guidelines and specified waste-discharge conditions. Current methods for devising freshwater quality guidelines are based on species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) that are used to identify pollutant concentrations, ensuring the protection of a modelled percentage of species (95% protection is a common goal). SSDs are derived from the toxicity test results of as many taxa as possible for each polluting substance. Waste-discharge licences can be for single substances, specified in terms of chemical concentrations, and derived in conjunction with instream guidelines; or for complex mixtures, specified in terms of toxic units. In both cases toxicity test results are the core data used. The emphasis on SSDs calls into question the species constituting the test populations. It is likely that SSDs based in part on the responses of local organisms will achieve superior site-specific ecological protection. Until the early 1990s, there were very few data on the tolerances of South African freshwater organisms. In the intervening decade, the Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality at Rhodes University has developed a toxicity database that, to date, records the responses of 21 South African freshwater taxa to 26 single-substance pollutants or mixtures. This is the most comprehensive database of South African toxicity responses available and has been used in the drawing up of methods and guidelines to protect water resources. This paper aims to make these data available and to describe applications of the data using selected case studies.
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- Date Issued: 2004
Use of indigenous riverine invertebrates in applied toxicology and water resource-quality management
- Authors: Scherman, Patricia A , Palmer, Carolyn G , Muller, Nikite W J
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438061 , vital:73432 , ISBN 1-86845-962-4 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/955-1-03.pdf
- Description: The National Water Policy (DWAF, 1997). and the National Water Act (No 36 of 1998)(NWA) provide the legal and management context for the application of results. The law and the policy are founded on the concepts of equity (fairness of access to water and water services) and sustainability (the opportunity to optimally use water resources now and into the future)(NWA, l (l)(xviii)(b)). The concept of sustainability is based on the understanding that on earth water comes packaged in aquatic ecosystems, and that the product, water, is intimately related to and affected by the structure and functioning of these ecosys-tems.(Aquatic ecosystems include rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers and estuaries. Impoundments act as artificial lakes connected to river sys-tems.) A key recognition during the development of the policy and the NWA was that" the environment" does not compete with users for re-sources-the environment (in this case aquatic ecosystems) is the re-source. Therefore a key poiicy of DWAF is that vi resource protection in order to achieve sustainable resource use. Resource protection is achieved through the implementation of resource directed measures (RDM) and source directed controls (SDC).
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- Date Issued: 2003
Some For All Forever: Water Ecosystems and People
- Authors: Palmer, Carolyn G , Berold, Robert , Muller, Nikite W J , Scherman, Patricia A
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437599 , vital:73396 , ISBN 1 86845 850 4 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT 176 complete.pdf
- Description: Water for people and people for water. We need water and water needs us. That is what this book is about. Water is the basis of all life. No plant, animal or person on earth can survive without it. In fact, all organisms are mostly made up of water. Wa-ter shapes the earth’s surface. It is a fundamental part of climate processes. Out in the natural world, water is not found in taps, buckets and glasses but in rivers, wet-lands, lakes, dams, estuaries, groundwater and the sea. It falls from the sky as rain, runs off the landscape, filters into the soil, flows to the sea in rivers, is stored in dams, evaporates into the sky, and rains back onto the earth. This is the water cycle. People need water for all sorts of things, for drinking, washing, cooking, growing food, in industries, and to dilute and transport wastes. But in the process of using water, people can damage rivers, wetlands, lakes and other watery places. Dam-aged ecosystems do not work very well and may fail us when we need them most. The message of this book is – look after water in the places where it is naturally found – look after water and water ecosystems because you need them so much.
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- Date Issued: 2002
The toxicity of zinc to a selected macroinvertebrate, Adenophlebia auriculata (Ephemeroptera, Leptophlebiidae) method development
- Authors: Everitt, Victoria J , Scherman, Patricia A , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442370 , vital:73979 , https://doi.org/10.2989/16085914.2002.9626572
- Description: The South African water quality guidelines for the protection of the aquatic environment are constantly being updated. The Centre for Aquatic Toxicology of the Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, uses artificial streams and toxicological methods to contribute to the development and refinement of these guidelines. This study involved the use of 96-hour acute toxicity tests, using zinc sulphate as the toxicant, to determine the suitability of Adenophlebia auriculata as a potential indicator species of zinc pollution. As it is known that experimental environments (e.g. still versus flowing water systems) can influence the tolerance of a test species, the experimental system most suited to this species' abiotic requirements was determined. Static and recirculating systems were compared, with LC50 values calculated for the static systems being 91% lower than those calculated for the recirculating systems. The increased sensitivity to the toxicant under static conditions may be due to the animals being additionally stressed by the less favourable static environment. This suggests that recirculating systems are more suited for toxicity tests using this mayfly. Adenophlebia auriculata appears to be tolerant to zinc when compared to zinc LC50 values for other test species in the literature, and may therefore not be a suitable indicator of zinc pollution in an aquatic environment.
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- Date Issued: 2002