Trash Trap: Activists and volunteers erect giant net to save Hennops River

Olievenhoutbosch residents returning home from work late on Tuesday afternoon were surprised to see a strange net being constructed over a section of the Rietspruit River that flows through the township and into the Hennops River.

The astonished locals gathered on the idyllic yet litter-strewn banks of the stream to witness a group of Fresh NGO volunteers erect a giant net across the river.

Some speculated that they were attempting to catch fish and informed them that the only fish they might find here were most probably Barbels, which aren’t good for eating.

Gareth Hansen, a Centurion local who volunteers to help clean the polluted Hennops River, quickly corrected them and explained that the net was a litter trap for catching trash that was most often disposed of into the river by residents. The trash eventually makes its way downstream and is seriously polluting the river and killing most of the life in and around it.

Of the group of volunteers, three of them are residents that decided to join in on the cleaning effort and construction of the litter trap.

“I live here in Olievenhoutbosch and can see the plastics floating down here every day, now we can catch it and help make this area better again,” said Karabo Shaku, a local volunteer.

Willem Snyman, CEO of the Fresh NGO and main driving force behind the #SaveTheHennops campaign hopes more locals will join in and benefit from these projects.

After being supplied with a container filled with old unused nets, he has taken it upon himself to set up and install litter traps all along the river, especially in nearby townships, where the dumping of trash and rubble is contributing to most of the dying river’s pollution.

In doing so, many of the locals that are often unemployed end up volunteering and eventually maintaining the litter traps. They are then able to gather the trash and plastics and sell it to earn some income.

“This is the third trap we are erecting, I really hope we can set up a few more before the rains and flooding comes,” Willem said while stretching the blue net over the black river waters.

The nets he and the volunteers are setting up along with the regular clean-up drives are making a visible difference to areas along the river but when the annual floods come down, the litter traps are the only thing preventing massive amounts of trash being pushed down the stream again for kilometres and all their work being undone.

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