The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) has joined forces with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to make the Vaal Dam the first in SA to use Facebook and Twitter to disseminate information.
“Following information on the Vaal Dam is one of the latest developments aimed at making water-related information interesting and accessible via social media sites,” says the department.
It adds that the joint project between DWA and CSIR Meraka Institute uses Internet of Things technologies to communicate information on the dam.
“The term, Internet of Things, refers to the connectedness of everyday objects to the Internet. Everything is connected to everything else - any place, any time, any thing, anyone.”
As a demonstration of the application of Internet of Things technologies, CSIR researcher Laurie Butgereit is using the Beachcomber platform to regularly update numeric information at 30-minute intervals on the capacity of the Vaal Dam.
“Butgereit's program then automatically prepares this information for dissemination through a number of channels in a non-obtrusive, socially acceptable way,” says the DWA.
These channels include Twitter (@vaal_dam) and Facebook. Shortly after going live, more than 100 people started following @vaal_dam and it got 100 Facebook friends.
Beachcomber also prepares the information for dissemination on request via MXit, Jabber, Google Earth and e-mail, according to the department.
"We are proud of the quality of information on our Web site and have been very pleased to see how this Vaal Dam Internet of Things project has helped this information reach an even wider audience," says Mava Scott, chief director of communication services at the DWA.
Butgereit's program searches for and includes additional media on the Vaal Dam for dissemination via the channels mentioned above. Photographs, news articles, research papers and YouTube videos are added using links to the Internet.
The department says discussions are under way to explore replicating this Internet of Things project for other local dams and rivers, in line with international trends.
“The initiative has already drawn interest reaching far beyond our shores. Butgereit received a message from a professor at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Campus Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department. He saw the Vaal Dam Twitter feed and made contact with her.”
Butgereit says he is interested in the DWA's method of updating the dam stage level periodically.
The Vaal Dam was constructed in 1938 and lies 77km south of OR Tambo International Airport. It is situated on the Vaal River, which is one of SA's strongest-flowing rivers.
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