Durban residents band together to clean up city beaches

Durban residents have collected over 44 000 bags of trash that washed ashore around the city’s coastline following last week’s devastating floods.

According to eThekwini municipality, a total of 44 050 bags of litter have been collected over the past four days at beach cleanups held across the city.

At least 8 800 bags were collected from the Pipeline and Toti beaches on Friday when operations began.

“Around 2 700 bags were collected south of Toti beach. A simultaneous clean-up was held along the central beaches where 230 bags were collected at the Bluff beaches and 1 100 bags collected along the beachfront.

“On 16 April, 5 100 bags were collected along the Pipeline and Toti beaches while 4 100 bags were collected south of Toti Beach,” said eThekwini Municipality in a statement.

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Bluff residents scooped up a further 280 bags of trash that wash ashore along that part of town, while another 500 rubbish bags were collected along the beachfront.

“About 12 450 bags of litter were collected during the four-day period along the City’s northern beaches including Umhlanga Main, uMdloti, and Westbrook.” said eThekwini spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela.

Mayisela said the collected rubbish was disposed of at the Springfield dumpsite.

The city suffered a 16% loss in tourism after scores of holidaymakers abandoned their trips to KZN according to media reports.

This resulted in a loss of about 30 000 visitors and a projected loss of R30 million in domestic tourism revenue.

Another hard blow for the Municipality came on Wednesday when the city announced that beaches would be closed in the northern parts after the United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) dam had overflowed due to heavy downpours.

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