JNCC’s Environmental Pollution Programme team visits South Africa
By Isabella Gosetto, Natasha Hunt and Saskia Mori
In this blog post, Isabella Gosetto, Natasha Hunt and Saskia Mori from our Environmental Pollution Programme team tell us about a recent visit to South Africa.
In March this year, members of JNCC’s Environmental Pollution Programme team spent a week in South Africa. The trip included the hosting of an impactful symposium in Kwazulu-Natal, as well as several meetings and project visits.
Figure 1: Participants at the South Africa symposium (copyright JNCC).
The week started with meetings with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the Water Research Commission and the UK Deputy High Commissioner. These meetings provided fruitful discussions on the EPP and alignment with existing government priorities and initiatives centred around the environment and supporting socio-economic development. This includes, for example, SANBI’s priority to reduce poverty through the creation of sustainable employment opportunities by implementing collaborative programmes to rehabilitate ecosystems.
During the planned visit, there was also an opportunity to visit two projects being delivered by EPP partners the Institute of Natural Resources (INR). Starting with a visit to Durban University of Technology (DUT), we were given a tour of the laboratories and had a meeting to discuss the dairy wastewater treatment project. Whilst there we were also able to see DUT’s exciting progress with the laboratory phase of using algae to treat dairy wastewater, which is now being trialled in the field.
Figure 2: Colleagues on a visit and tour of DUT’s laboratory facilities (copyright Natasha Hunt/JNCC).
The visit to DUT was followed by a trip to the uMhlanga Estuary and oHlanga river system, an area that experienced a severe agrochemical spill three years ago. The site is one of the three estuaries of focus for a project which is assessing the utility of environmental monitoring for informing the recovery of habitats subject to extreme pollution events. Starting at the spill site, we travelled downstream to the estuary mouth, which helped us to understand the flow and impact of the agrochemicals through the diverse habitats and informal settlement affected by the spill.
Figure 3: The uMhlanga Estuary (copyright Natasha Hunt/JNCC).
Figure 4: JNCC, Defra and INR observing the oHlanga river areas impacted by the spill (copyright Natasha Hunt/JNCC).
A key focus of the visit was the EPP South Africa Symposium hosted by JNCC. This three-day event gathered over 40 key stakeholders from across South Africa, with the aim of strengthening relationships, facilitating project delivery, and refining final year programme activities. Attendees to the event included project teams, including lead delivery partners the Institute of Natural Resources (INR), Dr Nick Rivers-Moore (NRM) and the University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN), local government representatives, community-based citizen scientists, team members from JNCC and Defra, and the event’s keynote speaker, Professor Beatrice Olutoyin Opeolu.
Figure 5: JNCC at the EPP SA Symposium (copyright JNCC).
The symposium featured a rich blend of project presentations, question and answer (Q & A) sessions, and interactive workshops. These activities allowed participants to disseminate updates on progress, enhance their understanding of project interconnections, and identify research gaps related to solid waste and wastewater management in South Africa. The collaborative environment also enabled dispersed project teams to share knowledge and appreciate the broader context of their efforts within the programme. The symposium was a great success and provided the opportunity for programme colleagues to feed back on the event and wider programme, which included the following:
EPP feedback:
- "Participating in real life problems and addressing them"
- "Strengthening connections with local communities, policy makers and practitioners during research interactions"
- "I see this as a way to better solve on ground challenges as solutions are co-developed with communities and not a top-down approach"
EPP Symposium, March 2024, feedback:
- "From this workshop I have developed a clear path of where I want to direct my career at. Based on the gaps identified I feel I can be able to try and bridge some of the gaps"
- "Interacting with, learning from, and creating connections with colleagues from different disciplines, institutions and research backgrounds"
Figure 6: INR and consultant colleagues undertaking a groupwork activity during the symposium (copyright Natasha Hunt/JNCC).
JNCC’s visit to South Africa provided the team with valuable insights into the progress of the projects and particularly to observe direct changes since the previous visit in October/November 2023. The time spent in-country also provided some key relationship-building, bringing together partners and project teams for fruitful discussions and identifying synergies to enhance the impact of the projects.
Find out more about the EPP on our website.