Swimmers raise awareness of pollution of the Vaal River in Standerton
The newspaper spoke to Mr Chin on Monday, 8 March, who said they hoped to take the story beyond the Standerton-community.
Four open-water swimmers swam 16km of the highly polluted Vaal River to raise awareness of its contamination and to help seek solutions.
Messrs Andrew Chin and Craig Bishop from Cape Town, along with Ms Mandy Uys and Ms Joy Roach from East London, took on the challenge as part of the ‘Swim for Rivers’-campaign,
The foursome began on Friday, 5 March near the Blesbokspruit confluence with the Vaal River, for the 9.5km to the entrance of the Grootdraai Dam.
They proceeded on Saturday from below the dam wall and swam 8.5km to the old bridge on the Meyerville-side.
The Standerton Advertiser saw the activities on Sunday, 7 March at 9.30am where the swimmers and the community were cleaning the Standerton River Park.
Lekwa Clean Up Crew (LCUC) was also present and helped to clean the area.
The LCUC thanked AfriForum, Standerton for donating gloves to the workers, as well as Steers, Standerton for providing meals to their members.
The newspaper spoke to Mr Chin on Monday, 8 March, who said they hoped to take the story beyond the Standerton-community.
“Almost every small town in the country is facing the problem of a lack of municipal awareness about polluted rivers,” he added.
