Hennops cleanup focuses on clearing hyacinth ahead of spring

Hennops Revival has started with the mechanical intervention to speed up the removal of high proliferating hyacinth flowers in Centurion as spring fast approaches.

Hennops activist and founder Tarryn Johnston told Rekord that the ponds were currently covered with water hyacinth.

“Our specialised crew have been manually removing tons of hyacinth.

“Our most exciting instant reward was that yellow-billed ducks and Egyptian geese returned to the ponds, they had not been seen in some time,” Johnston added.

The organisation started focusing on cleaning the ponds after it temporarily stopped cleaning the Hennops River.

Johnston said as the organisation did not want to add the metro’s woes as it unable to collect refuse amid the illegal strike.

“We understand the challenges that the metro is facing and for the time being I have decided to stop removing waste from the Hennops River. Firstly, we work with the city and we do not want to add to the existing issue by leaving thousands more bags of waste that will not be collected.”

She said her organisation was funded by private businesses, and that she would not want to portray them in a manner that would suggest that they were not environment-friendly.

Johnston, however, said there were a few bags that were left uncollected before the municipal strike but remained confident that the metro would sort this out.

“Our focus now is assisting with hyacinth removal at the Centurion Society of Model Engineer’s ponds, and we are also going to be doing some erosion control,” she added.

The Hennops Revival founder further said one of the priorities was to revitalise the banks of the river, as an effort to keep her team busy while the municipal issue was yet to be resolved.

“We don’t waste time fighting, in fact, we simply don’t waste time. We will do what we can to get as much as possible done, this is where we invest our energy – getting things done,” she emphasised.

The organisation was established and registered as an NPO four years ago.

Throughout its existence, the organisation has generated a lot of attention and it has become one of the most reputable environmental companies in the country with an excellent track record for service delivery, according to Johnston.

On the question of whether they have seen progress on the work done on the Hennops River, she said the quality of the river remained poor as the E. coli counts were off the charts.

She said in general, there was little to no change in the number of contaminants that the river absorbs.

“Our continued work over the years, removing waste, unblocking the bridges, and ensuring flow has reduced flood severity.

“Having partnered with the Tshwane metro and numerous private companies, both local and international, our plans going forward will certainly include addressing the river water quality,” she concluded.

Security guard treated for smoke inhalation at Corobay

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