This award recognises the achievements of the stream assessment scoring system (miniSASS) and it was received by Tich Pesanayi from WESSA at a high-profile event held at the United Nations University as part of the 8th Global RCE's conference on education for sustainable development. The conference ran from 26 to 29 November in Nairobi, Kenya.
The citation on the award acknowledges river health monitoring and public mobilisation using the miniSASS community river health monitoring tool.
The citation further notes the project's contribution to the development of an innovative platform for citizens to measure and express their concerns around water quality and service delivery. The miniSASS bio-monitoring project is now implemented on a Google Earth platform, which makes all of the results visible in the public domain. The research on miniSASS is supported by the Water Research Commission (WRC) and the Department of Water Affairs is an implementing partner in this important citizen science project.
The award from the United Nations University is the second award that miniSASS has received this year, following the recognition received from WRC in September in the form of a Community Empowerment Award for 2013.
