The start of 2021 brought with it heavy and persistent rain. Bedfordview ward councillor Jill Humphreys said while the rains were welcomed, it brought with it another threat: the eroding banks of the Jukskei River.
“The severe erosion of the river banks has in some areas become critical,” she said. In Morning Hill, a section of the river banks next to the City Power lines is eroding at a rapid rate.
Humphreys said that without intervention, the damage that can be caused should the erosion reach the power pylons could be devastating.
“The lines that run through Morning Hill go from Isando to Johannesburg,” she said. Humphreys added that something should be done sooner rather than later.
She said while the Morning Hill section of the Jukskei River doesn’t pose an immediate risk, other areas along the river do.
“In some areas, large sections of the banks have already been gouged out,” she said. One such area is that which flows past Gillooly’s Farm.
“The area was used by parkrun enthusiasts and along one particular part of the trail participants were actually only running on the lip caused by the erosion. “This posed a massive danger to runners and event organisers,” she said.
Humphreys encourage the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) officials to take a serious look at the erosion of the banks and to look for ways to stabilise them before any one is harmed.
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