Hello!

Certainly, the Groundwater Pollution article has been improved a bit in terms of content. However, a few issues regarding the reference format may still remain. I’m also checking a few more pictures that can be added to the article. And I would love help develop the content for a new article on “Groundwater Protection” and continue with the version in Spanish; but I find Wikipedia editing itself a bit tricky. Any experienced Wikipedia editor out there in WG11?

Best,
Miguel

Great work! I see more than 60 Edits on the Wikipedia Groundwater Pollution Page in just 3 days.
Thanks Miguel and also thanks to "EMsmile".
Leif.

Hi Miguel,

You have blown me away! I think you are the first novice Wikipedian I have seen who has done such huge improvements to an existing article without making the common mistakes that many people make when they are new (including myself when I was new).

Well done! You are living proof that it can be done. I know Wikipedia editing is not easy for novices. What was your secret?

OK so please everyone from the groundwater working group, have a look at the much improved and expanded article on groundwater pollution on Wikipedia and give Miguel some comments. Either here or on the talk page of the article. Or make changes directly yourself here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater_pollution

Miguel what is your plan now regarding splitting off a new article on groundwater protection or not? Have you decided to rather keep it all together? I can see pros and cons for both approaches.

Also if you are now translating into Spanish, perhaps wait a few days to see if any improvements to the English version come in before translating to Spanish (unless you have a window of time right now then better use it ).

Please also send an email to the Working Group 11 mailing list about this. I really find it a major achievement! Perhaps someone from the Working Group will be alerted to it from the mailing list.
Just send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(it's a moderated list so will take about a day before the e-mail is let through by the secretariat)

Thank you for taking part in our Wikipedia edit-a-thon during 19-21 March and getting this big piece of work done!

Regards,
Elisabeth

Hello folks!

I finished my major contributions to the "Groundwater pollution" article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater_pollution) and I´m working on the version in Spanish "Contaminación de aguas subterráneas". I may edit more later on. Everybody is welcome to revise it.

Kind regards,
Miguel

Dear Miguel,

Great, I am happy to welcome you to our little team of Wikipedia editors on the occasion of this edit-a-thon!

Have you already registered on the Outreach Dashboard to make your edits count for this edit-a-thon? I don't recognise you here in the list of editors but perhaps your user name is not related to your name (which is fine):
outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Su..._March_2017/students

If you haven't yet registered for the event, just click on this registration link:
outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Su...2017?enroll=xjwmpagf

We currently have 30 people signed up which is great!

If you do any Spanish translations, then let me give you the same hint I gave to the others about French and Italian somewhere else on the forum yesterday:

I was looking something else up in Wikipedia and came across this page which looks helpful for new people wishing to translate articles (perhaps you have already seen it):
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Babylon/Tra...translators/Articles

Many Wikipedias have their own guidelines for how to handle translations.
See here the guidelines from the Spanish Wikipedia:

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Traducciones

I hope this helps a little bit.

I think it would be an interesting (but not easy) exercise to separate out "groundwater protection" from "groundwater pollution". You'll have to think about how to avoid overlap (it's my pet hate to see the same content on two different pages). E.g. right now the article on groundwater pollution already contains a bit on groundwater protection as well.

I suggest you write on the talk page of the article on "groundwater pollution" what you have in mind? Don't work for too long off-line - the sooner you take it online (first to the talk page and later to the article), the better. You never know who else might be working on it in parallel.

I look forward to meeting you in the Virtual Workroom some time during the 48 hour period starting this Sunday at 1 pm CET!

This is the link to the room:
seint.adobeconnect.com/wpeditathon/

You don't need a password, just enter your name and click "enter as guest".

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Leif/Andrea,

I just created my account on Wikipedia. This is my first time as an editor. I’m currently looking at Elisabeth’s excellent video trying to get familiar with the system.

I would be happy to help edit the article on Groundwater Pollution (I already started drafting offline a few ideas) and develop a version of it in Spanish. I also think that an independent article on Groundwater Protection would be ideal. This could include the concepts of vulnerability, wellhead protection, risks/hazards, and specially refer to groundwater as a water supply source within the (WHO) Water Safe Plan (WSP). There is already and article on WSP in Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_safety_plan).

I’m wondering what the best way to communicate during the edit-a-thon is; through the article talk page?

Kind regards,
Miguel

Environmental Specialist
Ottawa, Canada
miguelmadrid.net

Dear Mwaniki,

Thank you for your post, I am glad you like the new groundwater pollution page.

I took a look at the article you mentioned. If I understand right, it is kind of a review of another article:

Pharmaceuticals, hormones and personal care products associated with everyday household activities are finding their way into groundwater through septic systems in New York and New England, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“Septic systems nationwide are receiving increased attention as environmental sources of chemical
contamination,” said USGS scientist Patrick Phillips, lead author of the study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

I would have to take a look at the original article which was published in Science of the Total Environment and then possibly cite that one (not the Africa Water Sanitation & Hygiene magazine as that was not the original source).

What was the exact title of the study by USGS and its publication date?

Regards,
Elisabeth

Hi Elisabeth

You are doing some fantastic work in updating your page on Wikipedia on groundwork. Could you kindly add some material from the Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Mar-Apr 2015 edition which was recently posted in the forum?

The article entitled “Man-Made Pollutants Finding Their Way into Groundwater through Septic Systems” could be of use in your updates.

For ease of reference kindly find the article enclosed in the attachments both in word and a pdf whichever you may prefer to use in your work.

Kind regards / Mwaniki

Dear all, and in particular dear members of Working Group 11!

Ever since this document came out in February, I had it on my mind to utilise its content also for Wikipedia articles (see also related thread here ).

I am now proud to present to you the new Wikipedia page on groundwater pollution which I set up recently!
Here it is:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater_pollution

Why did I decide to create a new page?

Well, there was an existing page on groundwater (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater) but the issue of groundwater pollution (let alone groundwater pollution from sanitation systems) was somehow buried in the page. There was bits and pieces on other pages, too e.g. on the page about "Water pollution" but I think it is much better to have a dedicated page now. I have already linked to it from a number of other pages (e.g. the page about pit latrines, septic tanks, arsenic pollution of groundwater etc.). (thanks to Joe for the tip which pages need linking)

I have included some of the key facts from this document ("Final version of the checklist on safer siting of sanitation systems"), as well as one of its schematics and photos:




This is work in progress and I urge all members of Working Group 11 (this is right now 1169 people!) to get involved.

How can you get involved?

1. Read the article and correct any typos that you spot (you don't even need a login for that, just click on the edit button at the top: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater_pollution)
2. Make additions to the article or cite additional references.
3. Put here in this thread (or into a new thread) what you think is missing if you don't have the time or energy to add it yourself.
4. Use this thread here or the talk page of the article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Groundwater_pollution) to discuss possible improvements.
5. Propose additional photos or schematics that could be included (these must be available as a copyright-free version, i.e. open access).
6. Take another read of the Working Group's factsheet (see: www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/98) and incorporate content, facts or figures into the Wikipedia article (please no direct copy & paste though; that's because the factsheet is not (yet) open access and also because the language needs to be simpler, more easily understood in Wikipedia than the rather technical/scientific language used in the factsheet of the working group).

Please let me know if you have any questions. It would really make my day to see at least a few of you get involved with this article. I think it will be quite widely read as it's linked to from various other pages on Wikipedia. It is an opportunity to alert people looking for groundwater information to the topic of sanitation. And to alert people looking for sanitation issues about groundwater pollution issues.

I found it interesting to see that the information about groundwater pollution so far on Wikipedia was more focussed on the "high profile" events, such as the Walkerton event in Canada (which even has its own page), or well known industrial spill events. But the normal, daily, ongoing pollution of groundwater in developing countries due to pit latrines and septic tanks in urban areas - this was something hardly covered until now (not newsworthy!?). We can, and should, change this. As James Heilmann said "We can fix the internet" (see here ).


Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth,

Personally, I do not mind if the drawings/sketches will be used in Wikipedia. In fact I would love to see them getting a wider audience. I still think of course that they should be referenced properly.

I understand that there will still be a link to the original working group 11 document in the Wikipedia article, so that a proper referencing is provided.

I do not know exactly about “who owns the copyright”, but I know that I did draft the sketches and that BGR provided support in turning my drawings into professional graphics. While we did not talk about this, I assume that the intellectual copyright would rest with me in this case (even though Andrea Nick made a couple of very sensible remarks).

I am sorry to be of little help to the copyrigth discussion, i am currently focusing my energy elsewhere.

Leif