River in Emma Park in Linden cleaned for the first time in 6 years
Faeces from displaced people allegedly runs down the spruit and builds up under a bridge, the stench of which has caused people in the area to become sick in the past.
The spruit running through Emma Park might have been cleaned for the first time in at least six years.
So said Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk after an extensive clean-up was conducted at the park in Linden, by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo on November 2.
About 40 staff turned up in boots, overalls and river waders to cut grass and branches and removed much of the litter that was blocking the river.
“Emma Park has been a fight since I became councillor six years ago,” Van Dyk said.
“We have done many clean-up campaigns but I don’t recall the spruit ever being cleaned itself, though I have been asking for this for a long time. It’s a beautiful park but there has been illegal dumping, displaced people living here and the spruit has been blocked for years.”
Particularly troubling, she said the faeces from displaced people runs down the spruit under one of the bridges, and builds up near a retirement village.
The stench this creates has in past made some elderly residents sick.
The ward councillor asked that the spruit be cleaned monthly.
Irvin Sammons, a local resident on Van Dyk’s Ward committee with the environment portfolio, said he had never seen the spruit looking so bad.
“This clean-up was long overdue,” he said, pointing out a tree the pair said had been blocking the spruit for as long as anyone could remember, at least several years.
Randburg Sun also asked City Parks spokesperson Jenny Moodley how frequently spruits, and particularly the one in Emma Park, is cleaned.
She did not immediately respond, but her comments will be published when they are made.
Instead, she said two teams are involved in clean-ups at parks in Joburg.
“[These are] the park operations team that undertakes horticultural maintenance in the park proper and the second separate conservation department which has an aquatics team that does water body maintenance,” she said.
“Litter is an ongoing concern, however, after the first rains much of the litter accumulated over the dry season is washed into the spruits and dams, which makes the litter more visible.”
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