Hennops Revival targets hyacinths in river
Tarryn Johnston, the founder of the NPO, said everyone worked together to make a massive difference at the river.
The Hennops Revival NPO held another clean-up last week where 51 volunteers removed 410 bags of rubbish from the polluted Hennops River.
Tarryn Johnston, the founder of the NPO, said everyone worked together to make a massive difference at the river.
“So much gratitude to all the amazing new and regular volunteers. It is magical to witness the number of people who take special time out to give to our environment and our organisation.
“Thank you to our regular supporters, as well as to the South African Medical Research Council for bringing along the fun selfie-frame and for your ongoing support.
“And also for all the gifts for the Hennops crew members. And thank you to Mandla from the Department of Environment Forestry and Fisheries for your ongoing support and everyone involved at the Tshwane metro.”
Johnston said they also spent two days manually removing hundreds of thousands of hyacinths from the bottom dam at the model train park.
“As you can see there is a noticeable difference and this water is seeing the sun for the first time in a long time.
“It is extremely labour-intensive work; the plants are packed so tightly together, one has to pull them away from the others and push them towards the banks where they can be removed.
“One of our volunteers even went out in our canoe to try and pull it out, but unfortunately the plants were too tough.”
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She said there were laws in place regarding the transportation of hyacinth due to its highly invasive nature, “so taking it somewhere is not an option”.
“I don’t know of anyone permitted to transport these plants; so I had to come up with a plan, working with what is available and allowed.”
She said the hyacinths have been spreading out over about 50 square metres and are drying out and will be used to make compost.
“The vision is to establish a vegetable garden that will not only keep our crew fed, but will also allow for impoverished members of the community to trade organic waste for vegetables.
“We are far from done here, but it’s a good start for now. When time allows, we will be back again soon to continue.”
She said they will be combining bio-control measures with manual removal for the best results, hopefully before the rains come.
“Nonetheless, a great start to a massive project. Big shout out to my team: Johannes, Dumisane, Ricardo, Brian and Bongani for the huge amount of work you always put in. True dream team.”
And, of course, none of this would be possible if it weren’t for the donations from individuals in our community, Johnston added.
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