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A WATER-testing program is continuing a Riverland school’s long-running connection to the River Murray.

Kingston-On-Murray Primary School’s (KOMPS) Water Watch program has run for more than 10 years and, after a brief hiatus, is back and stronger than ever.

Understanding the importance of water quality and the role the river plays in the lives of all in the region are critical parts of the education program at KOMPS.

Program organiser and KOMPS teacher Phillip Lawson said the program was designed to “give students an understanding of how water quality is measured and the flow- on effects of what we can tell from the health of the river based on those measurements”.

Each fortnight students from all year levels walk down to the testing site with Mr Lawson and collect a water sample, which is tested for turbidity and salinity.

“The upper primary students are the ones who take the responsibility for the water collection and measurement,” Mr Lawson explained.

“Essentially the turbidity – or how clear the water is – tells us stuff about the flow, and suspended solids in the water. That can tell us how deep the sunlight can penetrate and that kind of thing.

“The salinity is the measure of how much salt is in the water.”

Recent samples gave salinity readings of 262 ECUs (electrical conductivity units) and turbidity readings of 30 NTUs, both relatively low readings, however turbidity levels are likely to climb as the flooding event continues and the water becomes murkier.

“Obviously being a freshwater river, we want to make the link with the students that the higher the reading of salt, the more negative impact it has on not just the animals that live in the river, but also all the plants and, by extension, all the people who rely on the river to water their crops and gardens,” Mr Lawson said.

“We continue to use the same tools to measure and we’ll be keeping records mainly for our own students and their learning, but we’ve also got the opportunity to participate in the citizen science one.

“In that case, we give our samples to the Landcare Board in Berri and they do the testing and record the results.

“We haven’t had a chance to get a sample into them yet. Partly because of the flooding and the levee being built here in Kingston-On-Murray, we can’t access our normal spot at the moment.

“We’ll put that on hiatus until next year, I would think, but each time we do a sample I’ll send a sample into them as well.”

Mr Lawson said he and the students were looking forward to continuing the program in 2023 and hoped the flood waters recede enough to collect samples from their normal site.

“(We will be) gathering data to build our students’ understanding of the river and use this information to help our understanding of what the river needs for the future to remain healthy and continue to support the communities that rely on it,” he said.

“Hopefully we have some level of access to it, otherwise I might have to find a location that’s nearby and collect the water then do the testing back at school.”