FOLLOWING the recent devastating floods in eThekwini, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), in partnership with various stakeholders, conducted a two-day clean-up operation.

eThekwini Municipality, Coca Cola, the Durban Green Corridor, DEA’s Working on Fire (WoF), academic institutions and other stakeholders joined hands to clean up the storm-torn municipality over the weekend.

The clean-up took place at various beach and harbour sites around Durban.

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“These activities form part of the Presidential Good Green Deeds Campaign, which is aimed at galvanising communities to take part in the protection of the environment, cleaning up, greening their neighbourhoods and changing people’s attitudes and behaviours towards responsible waste management,” the DEA said in a statement on Monday.

As a result of the heavy rains and floods, Durban beaches and the Port of Durban were swamped with marine debris, mostly plastic.

“As part of the department’s response to the litter problem, that is not only unsightly but also life threatening to marine life, about 500 volunteers, including 100 firefighters, focused their attention on six sites around Durban. The 100 firefighters from WoF in KwaZulu-Natal were not only part of the environmental clean-up in Durban, some of them were also affected by the recent floods and had their properties either damaged or destroyed,” said the department.

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