Article Participatory water conservation education on social media in Amathole District local municipalities, Eastern Cape, South Africa Charity Hove University of Fort Hare Oluyinka Oludolapo Osunkunle University of Fort Hare Abstract Social media has been attributed as beneficial by aiding fast and reliable communication which cuts across time and geographical boundaries. In South Africa, reports indicate that most people have access to social media. Such attributes can be harnessed by municipalities to educate about water conservation, especially considering the drought and water crisis that was experienced in Eastern Cape, South Africa. This paper focused on local municipalities in Amathole District in the Eastern Cape Province, which was declared a high risk zone due to the drought that prevailed in 2016 till 2017. The Government to Citizen Model (G2C) was used as a theoretical framework which supports participation. Purposive sampling was used, with water messages being prioritised. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse content on the local municipalities’ social media platforms. The researchers found that local municipalities in Amathole District, excluding the district municipality, were not using social media platforms for participatory water conservation education. Keywords government to citizen (G2C), municipalities, participation, social media, South Africa, water conservation Submitted: 4 July, 2018; Accepted: 12 February, 2019. Introduction Globally, the need for water conservation education has been on the increase due to climate change caused by global warming. This need has led to a movement by several organisations, governmental and non- governmental, working towards water governance, water sanitation and key to this research, water con- servation through various communication channels. This paper, therefore, focused on water conservation education done by Amathole District local municipa- lities on social media. The challenge of water conservation is faced espe- cially in developing countries (United Nations Water [UN Water], 2016). In South Africa, the drought and water crisis experienced in 2016-2017 calls for increased water conservation education to the people (Jordaan, 2017). The focus of this paper, Amathole District, was declared a high risk area due to the drought. This is a wake-up call for local municipali- ties within Amathole District to educate community residents about water conservation. Municipalities are local government agencies and they have to initiate discussion, involve and educate their communities to enhance community development. The Water Services Act 108 of 1997 prescribes the legislative duty of municipalities as water service authorities to supply water and sanitation according to national norms and standards (Department of Corresponding author: Charity Hove, Department of Communication, University of Fort Hare, 1 King William’s Town Road, P Bag X1314, Alice, 5700, South Africa. Email: 201204563@ufh.ac.za Information Development 1–12 ª The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0266666919835905 journals.sagepub.com/home/idv