Working for Water

jv86@duke.edu — Sat, 05 May 2018 01:03:48 +0000

Description:

The Working for Water program is a governmental initiative that launched in the 1995 and has had the goal of eliminating the alien invasive plant species that threaten the native flora of South Africa. Working for water has aimed to reduce alien invasive plants from across South Africa. The program also has a secondary goal of employing people from disadvantaged background with a subtarget of getting more women involved in the workforce since women have a higher rate of unemployment in South Africa. The group has cleared over 2.5 million hectares of land from alien invasive plants and has employed over 20,000 people on an annual basis.

Source:

van Wilgen, Brian W., and Andrew Wannenburgh. "Co-facilitating invasive species control, water conservation and poverty relief: achievements and challenges in South Africa's Working for Water programme." Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 19 (2016): 7-17.

Goals:

The goals of the organization are to remove as many acres of invasive plants as possible and to employ as many people as possible. The secondary goals of the program are to train the people who are employed to learn to use machinery and learn skills that will help them get other jobs. The Working for Water program allows the employees to get first hand experience identifying plants and using biochemicals and other remedies to get ride of the non-native plants. These skills allow them to look for more permanent work with companies or they can use their plant identification skills to become National Park rangers and lead researchers and field tours into the National Parks. Another goal of the program is to To reduce the density of established, terrestrial, invasive alien plants, through labor intensive, mechanical and chemical control, by 22% per annum.

Sources:

Phillip Mhlava personal communication

https://www.environment.gov.za/projectsprogrammes/wfw

Structure:

The Working for Water Program is run by the South African government and it hires full time contractors that then go out into rural communities with high unemployment rates. The contractors hire people from these areas and especially target the women population because they have higher unemployment rates than the men. The process is extremely organized and has been streamlined so that the program can get as many people employed as possible.

Genealogy:

The group idea for the governmental organization began when the scientists in South Africa became concerned that the Cape Floristic region, one of the most diverse plant regions in the world, was beginning to be overrun by alien invasive plants such as the pine tree. However, the scientists' concerns came during the 1970s and that was when the South African government was under sever budget cuts due to the apartheid regime. The scientists then collected data that they were able to present to Kader Asmal who was the Minister of Water Affairs and a cabinet level official for Nelson Mandela. The scientists were able to organize a meeting with Asmal and in the meeting he agreed that the problem of alien invasive plants should not be contained to just the Cape Floristic Region but to across the nation. Asmal and the scientists reached a secondary agreement that while the program was combating the invasive plants that it would hire more people and target the unemployed and women. Asmal saw the opportunity to increase awareness around the country about invasive plants while helping the unemployment rate and the disparity of unemployment between men and women.

sources:

Chutel, Lynsey. "Record Unemployment Affects These South Africans the Most." Quartz. November 23, 2016. Accessed May 04, 2018. https://qz.com/844825/south-africas-unemployment-rate-is-at-a-13-year-hi....

Oppositional Forces:

Some backpacking groups and bike riding groups that enjoy the Eucalyptus trees for their aesthetics and shade.

Type of Organization:

Governmental

Tatics Used:

science-backed evidence

Website

Web Exhibit Created By:

Jake Voorhees

Public:

false

Caption:

Social Movements - Governmental

Working for Water