Litter booms halts massive rubbish deluge
Litter booms stop 600 kilograms of rubbish from flowing into uMgeni River.
THOUSANDS of pieces of litter, debris including rotting branches, and other forms of rubbish has made the surface of the uMgeni River look like a rubbish dump after the heavy rains on Tuesday night. However, the litter booms which were installed at different points along the uMngeni River and along some of the tributaries have made a massive difference, stopping the rubbish from spreading.
According to Bart Fokkens, who is part of the Dusi Umgeni Conservation Trust (DUCT), an organisation that champions the environmental health of the uMngeni and uMsunduzi Rivers, around 600 kilograms of rubbish has been collected by Fokkens and his team.
The Glenashley resident, through the organisation, has installed three litter booms in different parts of tributaries leading into the uMngeni River. The litter booms act as a litter trap funneling rubbish into a cage.
The organisation maintains the booms and bags the waste they catch. DUCT members, using a Canadian-style canoe, are then able to use a pool like scoop to grab the rubbish on the surface and then simply clean the cage out. They then leave the bags of rubbish for the Parks department to collect.
“Thanks to the article in this week’s Northglen News, the Bridgevale Parks Department has supplied us with 500 bags to collect the rubbish in. We had around 600 kilograms of rubbish collected, much of it is plastic washed down driver. Nkosentsha Shezi of Envirobuddies has been kind enough to help with the rubbish collection from this clean-up,” he said.
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