VANDERBIJLPARK – After months of battling a severe water lettuce contamination that threatened to shut down recreational activities, the river has officially reopened much to the excitement of locals and tourists.
Hundreds of boats of all shapes and sizes hit the water on Saturday morning, turning the river into a scene straight out of a holiday postcard.
The contamination, caused by a build-up of water lettuce, wreaked havoc in the region. Authorities were forced to close the river to all recreational activities as clean-up operations were underway. Local businesses that depend on tourism, such as boat rental services, riverfront hotels, and restaurants, suffered major losses.
From luxurious yachts to zippy speedboats, the river was a hub of activity as families and boating enthusiasts cruised down the scenic route from the iconic Riviera Hotel in Vereeniging to the Vaal Barrage.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster during the launch, South African Tourism CEO Nombulelo Guliwe said: “We are here today because it’s Travel Week and also Tourism Month. We are here at the Vaal River to celebrate after the river survived its challenges.”
“It’s not every day that we celebrate our wins when we get stuff done, especially things that are linked to partnerships between private and public sectors,” she said.
Stonehaven on Vaal’s managing director Rosemary Cloete-Anderson said they are thrilled by the reopening of the river despite several jobs being lost due to the water lettuce.
“The crisis was quite devastating, not only for people, but for both the bird and fish life. The water lettuce covered 400 hectares, which is the size of a farm. Where we are cruising today, you wouldn’t have been able to cruise.”
“The Vaal River community worked with the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and Rand Water and put an action plan together. We physically removed it with excavators and applied biocontrol. By July we had removed it all at a cost of over R2m,” she said.
Anderson added that Rand Water (appointed and funded by DWS) will implement a proactive and preventative programme to ensure the Vaal River does not face similar levels of invasive weed coverage in the future.
“The DWS has earmarked R42m to make sure that the lettuce never happens again. This place is so rich in tourism that you can visit four or five places while on the boat, hence we need to protect it,” she said.
One of the boat owners, Sipho Mokoena, who spent the day on his jet ski said: “It’s such a relief to see the Vaal River alive again. We’ve been waiting for this day for months. It felt like the river was holding its breath during the contamination crisis, but now it’s like it’s breathing again,” he said.