“Hennops just as bad as before”
Despite a recent clean-up campaign, the Hennops river is just as foul as always.
The Hennops river is still in a horrible state despite a recent government and municipal campaign to clean the ailing body of water.
Trash bags, empty bottles and plastic packets still line most parts of the river.
The recent campaign, dubbed the “Hennops River cleanup Joint Operation campaign [sic]”, was undertaken by the department of water and sanitation and the City of Tshwane in conjunction with Adopt-A-River and the Tshwane region 4 Tshepo 10 000 members, from 3 to 6 May.
Despite officials spending time removing solid waste from the banks of the river, cutting grass and tree scrubs that interrupted the flow of the river, one of the worst affected areas, the section along Blackwood Avenue in Clubview, was not cleaned.
Ward councillor Peter Sutton attributed this to a lack of proper planning and “and ultimately fruitless effort”.
Though Sutton and AfriForum community safety coordinator Tarien Cooks, who has campaigned for the river to be cleaned, praised the fact that work was being done to clean the riverbanks and cut the grass along them, both said the campaign was ultimately doomed.
“The first time it rains again, the trash and pollution upstream will just get washed up along the banks again,” said Sutton.
“What needs to be done is to address the source of the pollution first, and then it will help to clean as well.”
When Rekord and Sutton visited a highly polluted part of the river we had visited just one month ago, the area was even worse than before.
More trash was caught along the banks of the river, full trash bags were discarded in the nook of a tree alongside the river and vegetation was seriously overgrown.
Sibusiso Mabase, project manager for the Hennops river clean-up campaign admitted that the levels of pollution of the Hennops river are very high and called for change in the perceptions and attitudes of people residing upstream.
“The river was very bad when we started on Tuesday and is not yet at the state we want to see it, but with constant cleaning programmes and public awareness campaigns we are confident that it will get to the desired state”, said Mabase.
Lucky Makgarengi, spokesperson for the department of water and sanitation has called on residents to get involved in cleaning up the river.
“The department of water and sanitation is appealing to everyone to protect and respect our water resources, and to report all incidences of pollution, such as the dumping of waste into the river, to the nearest police station or local municipality, or by contacting the department’s toll-free number: 0800 200 200.”
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