WATCH: Active citizens make a change
JOBURG – We'd love to know how you are making a difference, however big or small, in your community. Check out how you can share your stories with us.
A particular pair of boots may have been made for walking, as the song goes, but if the left shoe of what used to be part of this pair of blue suede, pointy-toed pumps were made for talking, oh the stories it would tell.
This shoe was one of the many items littering the banks of the Braamfontein Spruit that runs through Paulshof and Sunninghill before concerned residents came out in their numbers to help clean the banks during Spruit Day 2017.
The day saw the banks of the Braamfontein Spruit as well as the Jukskei and Klein Jukskei rivers throughout the northern suburbs of Johannesburg being cleaned by concerned citizens who dedicated their Saturday morning to help clean up in the name of active citizenship.
And this is what Spruit Day is all about – a community initiative powered by citizens to tackle the environmental issues along the spruit.
Tackling the litter problem is something that my team and I lent a helping hand with as we joined the Paulshof Residents and Ratepayers Association’s joint Spruit Day with Sunninghill Community on the banks of the Braamfontein Spruit.
Cleaning up our rivers this Spruit Day
Plastic bags, that once held people’s shopping, now lay torn and wrapped around the roots of trees. Polystyrene containers, that had once held people’s meals, lay scattered and disintegrated. The plastic bottle caps of the drinks that had once quenched people’s thirst, were now buried in the sand. There were too many glass beer bottles to count.
Residents from all sectors of the community, armed with plastic bags, set to work clearing the river banks of litter.
The sight of the litter brought back memories of watching a United Nations Environment YouTube video, filmed on 6 and 7 August last year, that documented the devastating effect of litter on marine life and the largest beach cleanup in history in Mumbai, India.
One could almost smell the heaps of plastic and other pollution that washed up on the shore as the United Nations Patron of the Oceans, Lewis Pugh, described how, despite visiting beaches all over the world, he had not seen litter on that scale before.
Pugh joined the cleanup movement in its 43rd week, which was started by 33-year-old lawyer Afroz Shah, after more than two million kilograms of litter had already been cleared.
Around the same time, Pugh also added his voice to the #CleanBlueLagoon initiative to encourage community members in the north of Durban to clean their beaches.
GALLERY: Spruit Day cleanup turns into a huge success
What these beach cleanups and our own Spruit Day show, is just how effective a call to action can be … when it is answered. Active citizenship can really make a difference. When concerned citizens get involved in their communities, even by small acts, for instance dedicating a few hours to collect litter along a river bank, our neighbourhoods benefit.
All too often, we Joburgers secure ourselves behind our high walls and embed ourselves in our own routines, all the while complaining about the state of our suburbs. Answering calls to action, like Spruit Day, physically breaks down barriers, making us explore our neighbourhoods and meet our neighbours.
While other ways to manage waste keep our Spruit’s banks clean in the long-term and promote a recycling culture which clearly needs to be explored, Spruit Day, in particular, and active citizenship, in general, serve to encourage us all to take the initiative in our neighbourhoods and show that we can all make a difference, even in the smallest way.
I’d love to know how you are making a difference, however big or small, in your community. Share your efforts with me by emailing daniellap@caxton.co.za
