Durban NPO encourages citizens to adopt water-conscious practices
By focusing on the local needs and fostering collective action, local NPO Green Corridors encourages sustainable water management and fair access to water, promoting a future where water serves as a stimulus for peace and prosperity.
THE theme for World Water Day this year is ‘Water for Peace’ which coincides with South Africa’s National Water Week (March 20–26). Green Corridors, the Durban NPO that collaborates to connect people to the planet, urges citizens to be mindful of the role they play in being custodians of our water resources.
“Green Corridors is motivated by numerous Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including SDG 6, which aims for clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. Green Corridors works on a number of project areas which educate and empower communities that lack resources and help them to restore natural areas for the benefit of both humans and the environment,” says Musa Shange from Green Corridors.
The organisation’s Green Spaces team recycles waste caught by its innovative litter booms on many of the City’s riverways, stopping the waste from reaching the sea. Working with surrounding communities, Green Corridors clears spaces that have been used as dump sites and restores them to their natural states as well as helps to develop market gardens in urban areas. Green Corridors’ work also includes developing natural sites for ecotourism with a goal of supporting economic development.
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“We need citizens to be increasingly mindful of practices that can impact water quality and how this affects fellow citizens and natural resources, too,” said Shange. “We see the ongoing devastation of our rivers and streams and the natural spaces around them brought about by alien invasive plants and irresponsible waste disposal which contaminates water and harms surrounding communities and ecosystems.”
Shange explained that the recent dumping along Riverside Road near the Green Corridors material-recycling facility site at Connaught Bridge is a case in point. “So much of the waste illegally dumped will end up in the uMngeni River and, ultimately, onto the beaches and in the ocean.”
“Green Corridors stresses the importance of collective action to address water-related challenges, which are intrinsically linked to effective waste disposal. The organisation embodies this ethos through safeguarding water sources essential for local livelihoods and, importantly, tourism in eThekwini. The UN World Water Day campaign this year explains that when water is scarce or polluted, or when people struggle for access, tensions can rise; that water cooperation needs to be at the heart of the plans for conflict resolution, and that harmony can be fostered between communities and countries by uniting around the fair and sustainable use of water – including actions at the local level,” said Shange.
Also read: Green Corridors’ litter booms combat plastic pollution
Green Corridors has partnered with numerous organisations, including WESSA and Adopt-a-River, with support from SAPRIPOL, PETCO and RMB, other conservancies, eThekwini Municipality Cleansing and Solid Waste, the Parks Department and Sihlanzimvelo co-ops, to remove alien plants and waste to restore water health. “Much of the organic and non-organic waste materials are collected through the Roadhouse Crescent Materials Recovery Facility at Connaught Bridge and litter booms on the rivers. This is then processed at the KwaMashu Materials Beneficiation Centre where products, such as pavers, compost and building materials, are being produced from this waste,” said Shange.
For more information about Green Corridors, go to https://durbangreencorridor.co.za/
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