WATCH: Hennops River cleanup reveals severe pollution and foul smell

Hennops Revival founder Tarryn Johnston was shocked to see the state of the Hennops River following a Mandela Day cleanup in Centurion last week.

“It doesn’t smell great. Water is brown with particles floating and waste in the water,” she said.

Rubbish, waste was scattered along riverbanks

Johnston said the rubbish and waste was scattered along riverbanks, with rubbish stuck to the trees.

“This is nuts and worse of all, bad human behaviour is to blame for the bad state. Yes, if it was just rubbish that’s okay, we can remove it from the banks and trees, but that black sludge in the water, how do we get that out? There are even bubbles floating,” she said.

Johnston said this wasn’t a disaster in the making, it was already a disaster.

ALSO READ: It’s make or break for Tshwane’s water crisis

River health in Tshwane in very poor condition

Environmental Warriors led by department of water and sanitation scientist Noloyiso Mbiza said river health at all the points in Tshwane was in a very poor condition.

Mbiza, along with volunteers from the Environmental Warriors, regularly clean various bridges around the capital.

“We have five points that we monitor using citizen science tools,” she said.

“We start at Groenkloof Nature Reserve and up to Bon Accord. Our main aim is to unclog the low-water bridge that floods when it rains. We have managed to do that and in the last rains, the impact was very low to no flooding.

“We have collected massive waste in our clean-ups at the bridge that goes to Capital Park from the Van der Hoff side.”

ALSO READ: City of Tshwane signs ambitious agreement with national department to solve water issues

Mbiza said the water running past Pretoria Zoo was smelly and black. “At the bridge, the water also has foam, which indicates sewage pollution suspected to be discharged from the Daspoort sewage plant,” she said.

Mbiza said there was a lot of waste in the rivers around Tshwane they planned to remove before rain started clogging up the bridges.

“We also managed to engage zoo management because upon conducting the riparian health audit, we discovered that the zoo had a huge impact on logs transported by rain, which end up clogging the bridge. It has since been fixed and we are continuously monitoring it to avoid any other logs being transported to the bridge,” she said.

State of the water at Apies River

Local cannabis activist Walter Pretorius from Aaptwak said the Apies River was close to his heart because he not only grew up in the area, but was worried about the state of the water.

Pretorius said water and cannabis both had healing properties and the one needed the other.

ALSO READ: Hyacinth removed from Hennops River

Pretorius used his Aaptwak brand to create awareness and frequently joined clean-up initiatives linked to the Apies River.

“It affects the agriculture sector because the water is in such a bad state that you can’t use it to grow food or cannabis,” he said.

Pretorius said the dirty water was not only an indication of the state of humanity, but also what people put into their bodies.

State of rivers major concern

WaterCAN’s Dr Ferial Adams said the state of rivers was a major concern.

“If you think about the amount of sewage, plastics, mining, agricultural and pharmaceutical waste – then our rivers are a toxic mess. Almost 60% of our river ecosystems are being threatened because of climate change and human activity,” she said.

ALSO READ: IN PICS – The killing of the once-scenic Hennops River

Adams said everyone had to play a role and do as much as possible to protect water resources.