Tonnes of waste removed in Hennops river clean-up

Tonnes of waste were removed in a five-day clean-up at a part of the Hennops river which runs past Southdowns Estate.

The river has, in recent months, been the subject of many campaigns to remove debris that has choked it for years.

“In the five days, Tarryn Johnston [founder of Hennops Revival] and her team removed 1 794 bags of litter,” Southdowns Estate general manager Daleen Hennig said.

The number of bags reportedly equated to 45 tonnes of waste.

Hennig explained that Johnston and her team removed plastic from the river banks which had been deposited over the years and cut away branches which caught litter when it washed down the river.

“The removal of this litter from the environment means that the area will be easier to clean and maintain going into the future,” she said.

She encouraged other residential estates and businesses along the river to play their part in keeping it clean.

Johnston described the clean-up as “the most incredible transformation of bank in the areas we have touched”.

“We worked there for five days, and got the most amazing results.

“We have cleaned up once before for private residents in the past and they were so impressed with our work that they prompted us to do a clean-up on a larger stretch of the river which runs in front of their property,” she said.

Johnston also took the opportunity to thank the 15 people who were involved in the clean-up and the Southdowns homeowners for playing their part in cleaning the river.

In November, Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said the metro would re-initiate a strategic intervention so they could put a sustainable plan in place to combat the spread of pollution in the river.

The initiation of the plan was put on hold earlier this year, when the metro was placed under administration.

The intervention the metro planned to re-initiate entailed building a litter trap at the weir of the Centurion Lake to capture waste and ensure it did not pollute the river in its entirety.

The weirs of the Centurion Lake were opened in February, to allow the free flow of water and allowed the city to start removing tonnes of accumulated silt.

Williams said this would increase inter-governmental relations as “the vast majority of the waste is coming from areas south east of the city of Ekurhuleni and the city of Johannesburg”.

“To this end, I will prioritise engaging with the mayors from both cities so that we can collaboratively focus on interventions to minimise the waste at its source.”

He also acknowledged that pollution had been a major environmental threat to the Hennops river for several years as waste from upstream communities had continued to accumulate at its banks.

“At one point, an assortment of plastic, polystyrene and foam formed a solid island of trash floating in the river,” Williams said.

He added that another contributor to the river’s deterioration was the raw sewage which spilled from the water treatment works in Olifansfontein which had also caused the lake to become seriously contaminated.

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