Abstract:
South Africa is home to some of the deepest mines in the world.
Waste from gold mines constitutes the largest single source of waste and pollution
in South Africa [2] Though mining industries develop environmental
management systems/plans to identify and mitigate the impacts their operations
has on the society, their outcome still poses a threat in terms of environmental
pollution to communities around them. There are many ICT-based pollution
monitoring solutions, but they do not address the needs of the affected mining
communities. Some of the reasons for this include lack of relevant tools to
access the systems (smartphones, computers) as well as lack of understanding
and appreciation of the disseminated information. The mining communities
around Lejweleputswa (South Africa) have learnt to depend on their own local
knowledge to prevent or mitigate the impacts that mining operations has on
them.
