RiverWel Residents Association hold annual greenbelt clean-up operation
Commitee members and a handful of residents take up call to rid their area of litter
Beacons of dependability, they roll up their sleeves when few else will.
The RiverWel Residents Association used what they have, mainly their able limbs and positive attitudes, to help provide a safer and cleaner suburb for their neighbours.
The group of community custodians held their annual greenbelt clean-up operation on September 11, the first time having done so in almost three years. To entice residents to pull on their boots and gloves, lunch at a nearby pizzeria was offered as a reward.
The greenbelt clean-up project is an annual endeavour aimed at ridding the area of carelessly discarded litter and elements that may prevent residents from enjoying the green lung. Stretching from Without Street to Cornelius Street, The roughly 2km strip of field that RiverWel members hold dear serves as a popular area for dog walkers and runners alike, many doing so as the clean-up was in progress.
Vagrants living along the banks of the river that runs through the greenbelt are the cause of much of the litter and the RiverWel clean-up crew encountered several men whose camp included a bathtub, refrigerator and the remnants of an above-ground pool. The exchange between the community group and the informal dwellers was kept civil by Community Support Services (CSS) whose presence would be valued throughout the day.
Well over 20 bags of trash would be collected and JCPZ, which provided the plastics bags, would return to remove the glass, plastic and miscellaneous waste.
“The efforts of the five residents from the entire residents association who bravely volunteered to assist the committee in their reinstated community river clean-up project were justifiably proud of the amount of trash they collected,” said RiverWel chairperson, Kevin Thomson.
Lamenting the sparce buy-in from residents, the chairman claimed to be reminded of Winston Churchill’s The Few but wryly commented “Sadly, very few of the current generation are probably even aware of it”.
Should residents wish to join the RiverWel residents association, they may contact Thomson at kevinrwra@telkomsa.net or 072 238 0348.
