Using Citizen Science Approach to monitor water, sanitation and hygiene Related Risks in Karonga Town, Malawi

Groundwater Monitoring through Citizen Science: A Review of Project Designs and Results

“…Information on awareness was available in 7 out of 33 cases only. In these five cases, different types of awareness have been reported, namely (1) awareness of water quality and its effects (Baalbaki et al 2019; Rigler et al 2022), (2) awareness of water use (Haile et al 2019), (3) awareness of monitoring needs (Eastoe and Clark 2018), (4) awareness of scientific methods (Peckenham and Peckenham 2014), and (5) awareness of problems such as flooding/ climate change (Wanda et al 2017). Reported levels of awareness were different, with partly high awareness regarding the need for water level monitoring or slightly lower awareness when it comes to water quality problems or scientific methods.…”

“…The third approach was to reach out to broader and more diverse audiences through the use of local media such as newspapers and television (Pieper et al 2018; Grace‐McCaskey et al 2019), advertisements and posters (Little et al 2016; Manda et al 2021), and social media platforms (Webber et al 2021), or even by directly contacting the potential volunteers through telephone or e‐mail (Thornton and Leahy 2012). Sometimes, it was essential to evaluate the volunteer's skills before the recruitment based on interviews or questionnaires (Wanda et al 2017; Baalbaki et al 2019; Ferede et al 2020) and based on specific criteria set by the organizing institutions (Rigler et al 2022).…”

“…Typically, projects conducted workshops and seminars to instruct the participating citizen scientists about (1) generally collecting water samples from wells (Babich et al 2021; Webber et al 2021; Alam et al 2022), (2) various water quality tests (Thornton and Leahy 2012; Baalbaki et al 2019; Ferede et al 2020), or (3) the monitoring of water levels using either electronic water level meters or tape measures (Manda and Allen 2016; Grace‐McCaskey et al 2019; Haile et al 2019; Gómez et al 2021; Manda et al 2021; Prajapati et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022). Most of these training programs have been accompanied by educational and outreach programs, which, for instance, introduce groundwater concepts (Little et al 2016; Manda and Allen 2016; Manda et al 2021), the importance of citizen science (Wanda et al 2017; Haile et al 2019), or various aspects of water quality (Baalbaki et al 2019). Sometimes, presentations by researchers were supplemented by factsheets, models, videos, and infographics (Jamieson et al 2020) or maps (Manda and Allen 2016) to support the monitoring process.…”

“…If the goal was to measure groundwater levels, citizen scientists were provided with data sheets (Manda and Allen 2016; Haile et al 2019; Manda et al 2021), electronic water level meters (Manda and Allen 2016; Eastoe and Clark 2018; Gowing et al 2020; Manda et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022) or tape measures (Goldin et al 2021; Prajapati et al 2021a). If the goal was to collect water samples, citizen scientists received respective sampling kits (Wanda et al 2017; Pieper et al 2018; Alther et al 2021; Davis et al 2021; Webber et al 2021; Alam et al 2022). In some cases, citizen scientists were to monitor water quality parameters and were, thus, provided with respective starter kits or chemistry testing kits (Thornton and Leahy 2012; Peckenham and Peckenham 2014; Little et al 2016; Jamieson et al 2020).…”