Abstract
Africa accounts for nearly 30% of the discovered world’s mineral reserves, with half of the world’s platinum group metals deposits, 36% of gold, and 20% of cobalt being in Southern Africa (SA). The intensification of heavy-metal production in the SA region has exacerbated negative human and environmental health impacts. In recent years, mining waste generated from industrial and artisanal mining has significantly affected the ecological integrity of SA aquatic ecosystems due to the accelerated introduction and deposition of heavy metals. However, the extent to which heavy-metal pollution associated with mining has impacted the aquatic ecosystems has not been adequately documented, particularly during bioassessments. This review explores the current aquatic ecological impacts on the heavily mined river basins of SA. It also discusses the approaches to assessing the ecological risks, inherent challenges, and potential for developing an integrated ecological risk assessment protocol for aquatic systems in the region. Progress has been made in developing rapid bioassessment schemes (RBS) for SA aquatic ecosystems. Nevertheless, method integration, which also involves heavy-metal pollution monitoring and molecular technology, is necessary to overcome the current challenges of the standardisation of RBS protocols. Citizenry science will also encourage community and stakeholder involvement in sustainable environmental management in SA.
Highlights
Southern Africa (SA) is rich in large river basin networks, from the over 1.4 million km2Zambezi River Basin in the upper parts and extending further to the 0.4 million km2Limpopo and 0.9 million km2 Orange River Basin systems southwards [1,2,3]
Given that most SA river basins hold vast mineral deposits, the mining waste generated by artisanal and mechanised mining industries has significantly affected the health of its aquatic ecosystems [4,5,6,7,8]
Progress has been made in assessing the ecological risks of mining and mineral processing to characterise and manage geogenic and anthropic aquatic pollution in SA [9,10,11,12]
Summary
Southern Africa (SA) is rich in large river basin networks, from the over 1.4 million km. Progress has been made in assessing the ecological risks of mining and mineral processing to characterise and manage geogenic and anthropic aquatic pollution in SA [9,10,11,12]. Ecological risk assessment (ERA) principally employs biological organisms to detect, evaluate, and predict ecological impacts of physical, chemical, and biological environmental changes in ecosystems. ERA provides a comprehensive mechanism for determining, monitoring, and sustainably managing ecosystem health and integrity. Monitoring natural and anthropic risks to these ecosystems using ecological indicators must be a priority for sustainable environmental management. This review dwells on the current approaches to assessing the ecological risks to lotic systems in mining basins of SA from heavy-metal mining and processing. We explore the inherent challenges and potential for developing and integrating an ERA protocol for the bioassessment of SA mining basins’ aquatic systems
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