Residents tackle Glen Hills park clean-ups
The initiative was spearheaded by the Glen An-Hills Neighbourhood Watch.
A COMMUNITY initiative to tackle illegal dumping and clean up parks in the Glen Hills area gained momentum this weekend as residents collected hundreds of bags of rubbish.
The initiative was spearheaded by Caron Bekker, a member of the Glen An-Hills Neighbourhood Watch.
The watch, which covers the greater Glen Hills and greater Glen Anil areas, also incorporated some of its patrollers into the clean-ups and targeted several parks in the area, including the park on the corner of Rinaldo Road and Tipuana Drive and the park on Rinaldo Road near Malacca Road.
Bekker said it was also an opportunity to collect and bag grass which the eThekwini Municipality had cut back recently.
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“Ultimately we want to reclaim our green spaces and show some pride in our neighbourhood. We raked up clumps of grass that the municipality cut back but didn’t pick up. We also found several alcohol bottles dotted around the parks as well as piles of rubbish which we suspect is due to illegal dumping. Although we didn’t get the community engagement we’d hoped for, I was proud of all the residents and neighbourhood watch members who turned up to help,” Bekker said.
Fellow Glen-An Hills Neighbourhood Watch member, Avi Pillay, said residents had to take a stand to make the area pristine again.
“We hope our actions inspire others to join us. We did have a few honks of appreciation from residents passing by which was great. We can’t just look at the situation with our parks and green spaces being in a mess and fold our hands and do nothing. That is why we all grabbed a rake and some rubbish bags and collected what we could. In fact, one resident who saw us did stop by and offered to take the grass cuttings which we had bagged because he wanted to use them as compost.
“That was an example of someone following our example and giving us a massive boost in terms of rubbish collection. I think the same story applies to our patrollers – we have now reached a point where we have up to 85 members on our team. We all need to play our part to keep this community clean and safe,” he said.
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