Tons of litter pulled out of Hennops River
Residents are doing their bit to try to clean the polluted Hennops River.
On Saturday, 71 volunteers pulled as many as 420 bags of waste from the river in Centurion.
All in all, about 13 tons of waste were bagged.
The clean-up was hosted in collaboration between Hennops Revival, The City of Tshwane and other concerned NGOs.
The river, one of the larger ones in Gauteng, is no stranger to pollution. Over the past decade, massive sewage pollution tides have turned the Hennops into one of the province’s dirtiest.
The heavy downpours last month aggravated the situation, bringing waste from source near Kempton Park as it flows through Tembisa to Centurion.
For seven hours volunteers braved the heat to clean up the river around the Hendrik Verwoerd Drive bridge. Volunteers pulled out soiled nappies, condoms, bags, beer crates and other solid waste – and found some dead duck and fish.
The clean-up campaign started in September last year and has been taking place every fortnight.
Clean-up organiser and Hennops Revival NPO director, Tarryn Johnston, said the aim was to restore the river by rehabilitating its spring water streams and wetlands from their permanent fountain sources, along perennial streams, to form a living river course again.
She said the condition of the river worsened following the recent floods which led to rubbish and untreated sewer water entering the Hennops River.
Read the full story on: IOL.