More than water: villagers in South Africa mapped a river’s importance to daily life
Originally published by The Conversation – Articles (AFRICA) — Read the original article →
The Kat River begins in the Hogsback and Katberg mountain ranges of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, a province of farmland, rural villages and rugged mountains along the country’s south-eastern coast.
The 152 kilometre river flows through the province before joining the Great Fish River. It provides water for 13 villages with up to 2,500 people per village. Water from the river is used for drinking, cooking, livestock, and smallholder and citrus farming.
The Kat River also supplies the villages with fish, reeds, wood, sand and medicinal plants. The riverside is used for swimming, religious activities and spiritual practices. However, over the past two decades, it has become more and more degraded by the periodic discharge of sewage directly into the river.
