Tap into the Clean Rivers campaign to keep rivers pollution free
According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, factories and big businesses are major polluters of rivers and dams.
THE Department of Water and Sanitation will host its annual Clear Rivers campaign online this year.
The campaign, which aims to raise awareness about South Africa’s water resources, sees thousands of locals celebrate Mandela month by cleaning the country’s rivers and other polluted water sources.
Due to lockdown rules that prohibit mass gatherings, the department has appealed to South Africans to mark the 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison by keeping the rivers in their neighbourhoods clean.
“They should not litter or throw foreign objects into rivers that will impact negatively on the lives of downstream users. Rivers carry water and nutrients, and they play an important part in the water cycle. We use rivers for water supply, which we use for drinking in our homes, watering on farms, making products in factories and generating electricity,” the department said in statement on Monday.
The department has called on all South Africans to be mindful of the pollution of water resources, including rivers, as this may also jeopardise government’s efforts to fight the spread of Covid-19 at a time when 197 000 people have contracted the virus, which has claimed the lives of 3 199 people to date.
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“Fostering volunteerism among communities is actively encouraged as part of this is a proactive approach to protecting our rivers, streams, wetlands and other water ecosystems,” said the department.
In September 2019, the department released a quarterly report, known as the River Ecostatus Monitoring Programme (REMP).
According to the report, most of the country’s rivers fall under Category D/E of the generic description of ecological conditions.
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The research identifies factories and big businesses as major polluters of rivers and dams while the Water Research Commission found river pollution to be among the top five serious threats to the economy.
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