The Mzimkulu River has been a passion project of The Green Net since our inception. We recognised something every time we crossed the river, and it was such a magnificent site, we wanted to be involved in preserving some of its natural splendour.
Little did we know what we will discover on the mighty Mzimkulu in the coming years.
As many of you may know, the Mzimkulu River is the lifeline to the region. About a million people are reliant on it for water. Our own extraction point at St. Helens Rock supplies water to most of our towns, more than 250 000 people. But this is all under threat.
As we worked our way up the river, we discovered sewage spills, illegal mining practises, previously built weirs that kept being destroyed in floods and constructed with questionable funding to assist the continuation of the illegal sand mining, illegal dumping, pollution from factories and eventually as we turned the corner just outside of the pump station 10km inland, we found agricultural run-off which killed a lot of indigenous plants, previously responsible for keeping the river water clean.
Our beloved river, despite its immense cultural and spiritual significance, is losing its ability to sustain life, including ours!
This is no longer a passion project. We need to make a stand. All of us! The loss of the Mzimkulu will cause the region to completely collapse. Without water, we can’t sustain our lives down here.
It is therefore imperative that we find solutions to the current problems on this river, we need to look at its ecological value and how we can develop sustainable solutions to keep the river clean and safe to drink from, we need to assist our upstream communities in helping to keep the river pure of litter and other pollutants that affect the water quality and therefore our health.
The Green Net hosted a discussion at the Port Shepstone Country Club recently where water experts and businesses, as well as the community put forth solutions for the ever-growing water crises as well as our very sacred, very significant and very lifeline, the Mzimkulu.
HAVE YOUR SAY
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