Water literacy

Water literacy

The photo above shows a volunteer measuring rainfall in a rainfall gauge

CS may result in co-creating technology, education and empowerment for and by concerned communities. CS can markedly expand data collection and analysis at a fraction of the cost of traditional scientific endeavours. One of the reasons for involving citizens is to increase critical awareness by the citizens themselves and also by government and in so doing to bring a shared experience – new knowledge – that changes the power dynamics and redresses the vicious cycles of exclusion referred to above. Volunteers now become co-creators of knowledge and gain increased awareness.  Entrenched hegemonic relations are challenged as new knowledge is owned and shared. The educational aspect underpins the volunteer experience – literacy about groundwater is empowering and emancipatory.