River clean-up causes concern

WELTEVREDEN PARK – The RiverWel Resident’s Association, in partnership with Metro Police, held a river clean-up on 3 August.

CPF Sector 2 chairperson Neville Burnett said the main purpose of the day was to conduct a SASS (South African Scoring System) test on the river to calculate how clean it is and to establish if there is any life in the river.

“We worked on three sections of the Klein Jukskei River in the area. The first section was from Harpuis Street to the Cornelius Street bridge, and here they got a score of 7, which meant that the river was relatively healthy in this section,” Burnett explained.

“The next section ran all the way to Cockspur Street and the score dropped a bit lower to 5.33 points. The final section was from Cockspur to Without Street and this section shocked us, as the score came out as zero. In other words, the river is extremely dirty in this area and there is no life in that area,” he added.

Ward 126 councillor Mike Tonkin said the reason for the low score was a sewage leak that was running into the river.

“The leak is very serious as it was calculated by Gawie Naudé and his Voortrekker group, who did the measurements that about 5 000 litres of sewage ran into the river per hour,” Tonkin explained.

He added that the issue was logged to the responsible entity but no feedback has been received yet when it will be repaired.

Burnett said, “About 50 residents helped us with the clean-up and the next day Pikitup collected all the bags that we managed to fill with rubbish.”

He said a special thanks needs to be sent out to members from Metro Police and the Sector 2 vehicle that helped remove a number of vagrants from the area.

“The next big clean-up is scheduled for 16 August at the Excel Park River in the area, and we urge all of the residents to get involved and to come and help out.”

Details: Ward 126 councillor Mike Tonkin 082 564 0160.