Green Beings in partnership with the local secuirty, city council and residents took the initiative of cleaning the Jukskei river up on on 22 March.The river rehab event was a successful community clean-up hosted by Green Beings, an environmental non-governmental organisation and its sponsors.
“80 to 100 people came throughout the day in support of the river rehab clean-up,” said one of the founders Alex Frost.
According to Frost the Green Being team choose the Jukskei river because they live in the area. “The river is part of our local community. Putting the event together was slightly easy because we have a network of people who could help us,” said Frost.
The event was put together by Green Beings in partnerships with RSS, a security company, which sponsored food and drinks, a jumping castle and ensured safety for all individuals participating.
Pikitup assisted with refuse bags and River Glades provided marketing material. The Johannesburg City Parks also assisted with the removal of alien vegetation and offered new trees to plant before the winter season.
Green Peace members came to support and the School of the Golden gave a free Kundalini yoga class to participants before the clean-up started. EZulweni Landscaping sponsored PVC piping to protect the trees from being ring-barked when weed eaters cut the grass.
Frost explains that the day was also in celebration of World Water day on 22 March which the Green Beings team hopes reminded people how important water is a resource and will therefore contribute to keeping it clean.
“The aim of River Rehab is to get the local community involved and take ownership of their natural areas, increase the biodiversity by removing alien vegetation and re-introduce indigenous vegetation, remove litter and other waste from the riverbanks.”
Ward 115 councillor Chris Santana was pleased with the turnout and said, “We want to secure the park so that resident’s feel safe. I have spoken to City Parks and Johannesburg Water and we will soon have a new fence put up to for security purposes,” expressed Santana.
Details: Alex Frost 082 775 4115 or greenbeings@live.co.za
