Villagers along the Eastern Cape's Kat River map what the river means to them
Rhodes University researchers worked with communities in 13 villages to chart how the river feeds, heals and sustains them, and what has changed since 2000.
Makhanda — The Kat River rises in the Hogsback and Katberg mountains of South Africa's Eastern Cape and flows 152 kilometres before joining the Great Fish River. It serves 13 villages of up to 2,500 people each, supplying water for drinking, cooking, livestock, smallholder plots and citrus farms.
It also gives fish, reeds, wood, sand and medicinal plants, and its banks are used for swimming, baptisms and ceremonies to honour ancestors.
Mapping a river's value
Esther Ahuoiza Seriki, Chika Felicitas Nnadozie and Nelson Odume of Rhodes University asked residents to mark on large maps how they use the river and how that has changed since 2000. They also interviewed 54 commercial farmers, smallholders and households, and members of the Kat River Catchment Forum.
Eighty percent of participants said the river's water, fish, reeds, wood, sand and medicinal plants were very important to their wellbeing. Residents reported poorer and scarcer water, fewer reeds and very few fish, and linked this to periodic sewage discharges. In Seymour village, the only communal tap was broken, so people carried water from the river in buckets. The study recorded residents' views and did not test the water itself.
What residents want
The researchers call on government and municipalities to repair basic infrastructure such as pumps, taps and irrigation channels, and to control pollution. They also recommend that farmers and villagers manage the river together, so that every user has a voice in protecting it.
Source: The Conversation, 4 November 2026.
