Willem Snyman making some last adjustments to the successful litter trap he and his team installed at a bridge along the Hennops River near SuperSport Park, 12 November 2019, Centurion, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
The Fresh NGO team with CEO Willem Snyman have estimated, after loading 32 eight-ton trucks with waste collected by their trash-catching net, that they have successfully removed nearly 250 tons of plastic and waste debris from the Hennops River.
The net they have set up under a low-lying bridge along the river near Centurion’s SuperSport Park just over two weeks ago, is one of several they have installed intending to catch the trash floating downstream.
The net stretches the entire length of the bridge – an area where the trash and plastics floating downstream often accumulates in extraordinary amounts. The net is not intended to survive major flooding and should rather be seen as a temporary structure designed to help contain the steady flow of trash poisoning the river.
Although the net has survived some instances of flooding over the past week and is successfully capturing the waste, finding a way of maintaining it and regularly removing the pollutants is the major challenge.
Lee Mtalaliso, a volunteer from Soweto, joined the Fresh team to try and bring his recycling and cleaning company, Kwenzi, to aid in facilitating a system where the net can be cleaned regularly.
He has worked with the Bagerezi before and, having lived there for some time himself, he understands how the trash-catching net can benefit the community of informal recyclers living along the banks of the Hennops River.
“It would take two or more regular cleanings a week and trash further down the river would be less, while the community benefits,” Mtalaliso said.
The Bagerezi informal settlement is situated along the river, upstream from the trash-catching net. Cardboard boxes and piles of crushed plastic objects collected from the surrounding suburbs ready to be sold per kilogram can be seen stacked along the river.
Ernest Ratlletowane, a resident of the informal settlement, says he would gladly collect the trash from the net if he thought it was worth anything. The recycling companies would not want to buy it, but if they bought it at a reasonable price he would be willing to collect trash from the net.
On Tuesday afternoon the Fresh NGO team re-installed the net as well as a tree trap to catch large branches or trees coming down the river during the recent rains. A group from the Bagerezi settlement arrived uninvited, some armed with brooms, and began cleaning the area around the river. The Fresh team gladly accepted their help.
Getting the communities along the river to participate in maintaining and benefit from the trash nets is key in attempting to repair the damage pollution has caused to the once scenic Hennops River.
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