Hands-on experience is what education should be about and this is exactly what the Schools Water Action Project (SWAP) in Gauteng is offering school students. Gone are the days of sitting in a classroom and not being actively involved in the subject being taught. Getting out into the natural environment and investigating its wonders, such as the local river, is how students should be gaining an education.

Through SWAP Gauteng three types of water testing kits are available to schools:

• A Water Quality Field Record Kit, which introduces students to water quality monitoring, thus creating an awareness of the connection between water quality, health and the natural environment;

• The Catchment Action Starter Kit, which provides the student with more water quality tests and emphasizes catchment action;

• The SWAP Gauteng Kit, which consists of a guide entitled "Practical Water Quality Monitoring for Gauteng" and a water test kit, aimed at high school students. The guide will assist students in planning a project as well as explain various hands-on tests that concentrate on river catchments, water life and the presence of a variety of chemicals that will determine the water quality in a particular river catchment. As some of the testing involves laboratory work, a laboratory has been established at Delta Environmental Centre, to assist those schools who do not have access to the scientific equipment needed for the tests. For those students who cannot come to Delta a mobile education unit has been constructed which is able to visit students in the field.

This mobile education unit comprises 5 work stations; a television/video monitor; white boards; shelves and drawers, all neatly fitted into an A-framed trailer. A tent can be attached to the side of the unit in order to increase the size of the working area. This unit is freely available to assist students with their testing and to provide water education workshops at various schools. Students interested in obtaining these kits, and possibly having a workshop in order to start their own schools water action project need to contact the numbers below.

SWAP Gauteng is also working in collaboration with the National Water Conservation Campaign on the "2020 Vision of Water Schools Project" to include the monitoring (auditing) of the amount of water used in schools and at home, as water in South Africa is a scarce resource. In order to provide schools with workshops on water quantity monitoring, the mobile education unit is fitted with a "mobile bathroom" so that schools can be shown how to measure their water usage and then investigate ways of saving water. This "mobile bathroom" consists of a toilet, urinal, shower head and a basin and also displays various water saving devices that can be attached to bathrooms to decrease the amount of water used. As students progress with their project SWAP Gauteng would appreciate constant feedback of their results and actions.

By providing schools with water education resources, Rand Water and Delta Environmental Centre hope that teachers will be motivated to include water education in the school curriculum and thus encourage all students in their school to take action in order to improve the water situation in South Africa.