A new podcast series called #ForWaterForLife launches on Tuesday 8th September (links below):
Iono.fm
Spotify
Stitcher
Apple iTunes
The JoJo website
The 12 podcasts feature stories about water across South Africa, and the water heroes and activists behind them. From phosphate mining in the Cape West Coast biosphere to protecting the Cape Flats aquifer to cleaning up Cape Town’s water canals.
Hosted by Gugulethu Mhlungu (editor, TV & Radio presenter and writer) and Sekoetlane Phamodi (writer, activist and development consultant), the duo delve into topics that include macadamia nuts and nanotech, extracting useful materials from human urine, revitalising the Jukskei, and drilling for groundwater to survive South Africa’s extreme drought cycle.
“#ForWaterForLife is a podcast series highlighting the story, the value and the scarcity of water in southern Africa” says Phamodi, “We ‘travel’ through South Africa in each episode, to meet a guest who has made it their life’s work to protect, preserve and replenish the water supply in our water-scarce country.”
From indigenous knowledge to cutting edge science, each episode reveals the challenges and insights of geologists, healers, innovators, farmers, organisers and activists as they #listentothewater.
Domestic water solutions company, JoJo, has sponsored the podcast, “Water is our most precious resource,” says JoJo’s MD Grant Neser, “It is also a resource that is under increasing risk. We can offer storage, filtration and sanitation solutions across the country: but we also need everyone to unify and take a very personal responsibility for the water we access and use every day. Our pay off line across all our products and services is ‘for water, for life’ and we hope this series is the start of people truly listening to the water in order to spark behaviour change by positively affecting water saving, recycling and harvesting awareness among listeners.”
Details on the series:
· The first podcast will be released on Tuesday 1st September and the next 11 Tuesdays after that.
· Listeners are invited to share their thoughts and feedback using the 1min voice note functionality via Instagram DM (@forwaterforlife).
· The series will celebrate water, weaving through the series of side stories of water’s histories, its sacred functions, its communal memories and its role in enjoying life.
· By offering these stories of dramatic interventions around the water crisis in the region, the series will be aspirational. It aims to grip listeners with stories in order to educate and to spur them on to become more active in their citizenship.
· “The journey that water takes from the catchment area to your tap is filled with interesting people and places. These are the stories we are telling.”
· What happens when we #listentothewater?
Background on hosts:
· Gugulethu Mhlungu is an experienced journalist and award-winning writer. Formerly the deputy editor of BONA Magazine, the country’s biggest women’s magazine and before that Lifestyle editor and writer at City Press, Mhlungu is an accomplished young media professional and thinker who believes the media has a strong social justice role to play. She is a former host of NightTalk on talk Radio 702, co-host of Breaking Dawn – a daily show on Newzroom Afrika and mentor on SABC 1’s One Day Leader youth development show.
· Sekoetlane Phamodi is an activist who works at the intersections of social justice, strategic communications and the law. He has over a decade’s experience as a writer, feminist movement builder and campaigner for human rights.
Background on JoJo:
JoJo is a home-grown South African success story that started with water storage and the JoJo tank. Today one of the great SA innovations has grown into a company that offers full domestic water solution across the country: from water storage in a JoJo tank, to rainwater harvesting goods, pumps, water filtration and sanitation solutions
For more information visit www.jojo.co.za
