Busy week for Hennops river revival
A whopping 965 bags of waste collected from the river over two days, weighing an amazing 24 125kg.
Last week was a busy one for Hennops Revival, the team that works so tirelessly to preserve the river in Centurion.
On 25 February, experts came to collect samples from various spots of the river to determine the extent of micro-plastics in the water, according to organisation head Tarryn Johnston.
The experts were Dr Emomotimi Bamuza-Pemu from OptimalEnviro Consulting, Mokgadi Hlongwane, a technologist at the department of chemistry, and Phedisho Mphahlele, a PhD chemistry student from TUT.
At each of the five locations, the group let 90 litres of river water pass through a four sieve/filter process to test for particles in the water.
They also took water in additional bottles for extensive research into exactly what can be found in the river water.
“I would like to thank councillor Derek Thomson, City of Ekurhuleni, Sol Botha of Olifantsfontein Business Forum and Formel Security Group for assistance with security while we conducted the tests.”
On 23 February, the team held a clean-up action next to the river in front of Zwartkop Golf Estate and Zwartkop Country Club.
“Flash floods and pouring rain couldn’t stop us. It did, however, create repeat work for us because of the huge amount of rubbish that always flows, but much more during higher water levels,” Johnston said.
“I am never amazed enough when it comes to residents’ help. What a blessing it was to see moms and kids from Centurion Eco Club all arriving in the pouring rain during our clean-up to jump in and volunteer. These kids had such a blast, covered in mud and sopping wet.”
A whopping 965 bags of waste were collected over two days, weighing an amazing 24 125kg.
“A huge thanks to the metro for arranging transport for our crew and also for supplying 1 000 bags for us to use.”
Johnston said the poly-island contraption that was recently installed was highly effective in collecting waste.
“This comparison is indicative of just how enormous and mountainous poly-island is.”
The amount of bags filled with trash, collected by the poly-island, over the past few weeks, look like this:
– 24 January: 330 bags
– 15 February: 270 bags
– 16 February: 383 bags
– 17 February: 468 bags
– 18 February: 372 bags
– 19 February: 330 bags
“In all, 2 073 bags of waste were removed.”
Johnston explained that 480 bags of polystyrene went for recycling and 235 bags of PET bottles to recycling.
If you would like to get involved with Hennops Revival’s efforts in ridding the city of river waste, contact Tarryn Johnston on the Hennops River Facebook page.
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