Nature and water sports lovers were shocked to see on Wednesday, January 10, that in certain sections where it flows through Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark, the Vaal River was covered with a blanket of “water lettuce” and hyacinths. These plants are alien invasive species that are known to grow and multiply at a staggering speed.

Members of clubs on the Vaal River, the guest house industry and residents with river properties have been working hard since last week and this past weekend to remove as many of the plants as possible from the water, bringing them to the banks and destroying them.

However, the public’s help is urgently needed to limit further expansion of the aquatic plants or help eradicate them.

Mr. Kobus Pienaar, a riverside resident and businessman from the Vaal Triangle, says they urgently need old tennis nets and/or old swimming pool nets to block and remove the water plants from the Taaiboschspruit entering the Vaal River. He arranged with Mrs Rosemary Anderson of Stonehaven-on-Vaal that the public can drop such nets off at Stonehaven. “It is a huge task to clean up the river,” says Kobus.

Anyone who can donate old nets or pitchforks is welcome to deliver them at Stonehaven.

More reports on the current crisis with the aquatic plants will follow later.