Westdene Dam gets a clean-up
WESTDENE – Westdene residents, Soweto paddlers and Wastepreneurs clean five tonnes of litter from Westdene Dam.
Residents of Westdene, supported by paddlers from the Soweto Canoe and Recreational Club (SCARC) and WastePreneurs cleaned more than five tonnes of waste from the Westdene dam on December 4.
The clean-up of the dam was arranged by several concerned residents, after noticing how much it had degraded. Since the first summer rains washed a mountain of litter into the dam, residents started cleaning the dam on weekends. However, the task was overwhelming for the handful of residents involved.
“There are two main inlets into the dam that are stormwater pipes coming from Brixton, Auckland Park, Melville and Westdene and every time it rains, they wash a load of litter and refuse into the dam,” said Mark Napier, a resident who is closely involved in the upkeep of the dam.
The dam was also covered by thick, slimy green algae, which is suspected to be the result of sewage leaks upstream.
Rallied into action, the residents arranged a formal clean-up of the dam on the day. They asked for the support of several businesses and communities that live in the area. One business that stepped up was ADreach, out-of-home advertising and marketing solutions provider, which sponsored R12 000 worth of advertising to raise awareness about the clean-up. SCARC and WastePreneurs both came out of ADreach’s Adopt-a-Project approach, which supports small businesses and communities in need. SCARC and the Wastepreneurs volunteered to assist with the clean-up.
The garbage on the banks and in the park was collected by the residents and the rubbish and weed from the dam by the SCARC paddlers in their canoes. All the waste was removed from the site by WastePreneurs.
More than 30 residents pitched in on the day, while 36 paddlers from the SCARC canoe club and eight WastePreneurs from the Pirates WastePreneur site assisted. Various companies, such as the Melville SPAR, May’s Pharmacy and SLKB Attorneys donated drinks, gloves, sanitiser and funding to assist with the clean-up.
“The fact that a group of kids from a squatter camp was prepared to give up an entire day to come and clean up this dam is inspiring,” said one of the fishermen from Bosmont.
“We don’t even know where these boys live, we wouldn’t go and clean their dam but here they are making a difference for us – incredible!”
While the condition of the Westdene Dam seems like a local problem for a local community, it is said to have an impact on the health of communities downstream as well as the environmental health of a large part of the Gauteng river system.
“The Westdene Dam feeds into Emmarentia Dam, and then flows downstream through the Braamfontein Spruit and eventually into the Hartbeespoort Dam,” said Napier.
Director of ADreach’s Adopt-A-Project programme, Steve Jourdan, said the collaboration of all these communities from different parts of Joburg and completely different backgrounds just showed the neighbourliness of our people and a commitment from various communities across boundaries to work together and resolve the challenges that we are left to face on a daily basis.
