North Durban litter booms make inroads in fight against pollution

COLLECTING an average of between one and two tons of plastic a month, the Durban Green Corridor’s litter boom project has proved an invaluable resource in the fight against river pollution.

The project has been piloted in Durban for the past 10 years with five litter booms situated on Quarry Road, Johanna Road, Connaught bridge, SPCA and the entrance to Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve.

According to Siphiwe Rakgabale, litter boom uMngeni coordinator, the purpose of the booms is to target principally plastic packaging that pollutes our oceans, river systems and beaches.

“The booms have been carefully positioned to work with river currents and prevailing winds, and is designed to cope with flood conditions. They are often also referred to as floating river traps because it is partly submerged and is positioned in such a way that is designed to trap highly buoyant and visible pollutants such as plastic bottles,” explained Rakgabale.

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He added a dedicated team visits the litter booms four days a week to place the rubbish into bags which are then collected by the municipality.

“The amount of rubbish we find trapped is staggering and it is comforting to know that where these booms are placed is preventing the rubbish from flowing down river and eventually into the sea. There are three litter booms on the Umhlangane tributary that have made a massive impact on the river.

“We would like to possibly look at having one on the uMngeni River itself because on a daily basis the rubbish flowing down the river is concerning. We see a small scale of what is being washed out to sea when there are monthly beach clean-ups so I feel a boom on the river itself would help the pollution problem,” he said.

He added the litter boom situated near the entrance to the Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve was also having a positive impact.

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