DID you know that South Africa is the 30th driest country in the world? And according to the Department of Environmental Affairs, we have less water available per person than Botswana and Namibia.
This means we should be very careful about such a precious resource, but we are not doing too much to safeguard our waterways.
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According to the department, most our major rivers have been damned, half our wetlands have been lost, industrial and domestic pollution of our waterways is increasing and an estimated increase of more than 50 percent is predicted over the next 30 years.
There are many factors that affect our waterways negatively, but one of our biggest problems is, of course, invasive alien plants. Alien water plants like water hyacinth, are clogging our rivers and dams and our waterways are so often blocked by alien invasive trees.
The foreign invaders are also more thirsty that indigenous trees so they suck up the available water. often even before it can reach our rivers and streams.
This is where a wonderful project, the Department of Environmental Affairs ‘Working for Water’ comes into the picture. Together with landowners the Working for Water teams are leading the fight against alien invasive plants.
Launched in 1995 it was first administered by the Department of Environmental Affairs. What is really special about this programme is the fact that it works with local communities, providing unemployed people with jobs.
In 2015 alone Working for Water provided part time work for nearly 44 000 people, many from marginalised sectors of society.
The environment is also benefiting enormously from the Working for Water programme, which works in partnership with local communities, other national and provincial government departments, research foundations and private companies.
To date over 2.6-million hectares of alien invasive plants have been cleared, giving our wonderful native plants a chance to regroup and grow.
It is good to know that, when it comes to alien invasives, there is some good news.
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