Community project cleans up west river
Sixty-two volunteers helped out. “We found diapers, shoes, plastic cooldrink bottles, dead chickens and dead dogs.”
The Moganwe River in Saulsville extension 7 was cleaned up by Saulbent volunteers as part of their weekly task last Thursday.
The Saulbent project keeps rivers clean to avoid water pollution.
It is a community project in extension 6 that wants to clean and maintain Pretoria rivers.
Sixty-two volunteers helped out.
The founder and director of the Saulbent project, Mashudu Makhado, said the river has been populated and the project was the first to get it cleaned.
“We monitored the river and then decided when it was best to clean it.
“We got the material we used to clean the river from Plastic SA and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
“We found diapers, shoes, plastic cooldrink bottles, dead chickens and dead dogs,” he said.
He said the Tshwane metro waste truck then picked up the waste after they were done.
Makhado said the project started in 2007 when he noticed all the illegal dumping sites near streams and wetlands.
“When the rivers are polluted, aquatic animals die and we need to protect our animals.
“It is our duty to keep our rivers clean to avoid pollution because it is a problem in our country.
“After it rains, the rubbish flows straight into the rivers,” he said.
Makhado said people could get sick because of water pollution.
“So far we have cleaned three rivers and we hope to clean up more rivers in future.”
Makhado said they were planning to have another clean-up on June 19, Father’s Day, in Marabastad River in Pretoria West.
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