River clean-up crew get help in pollution fight
ImproChem was made aware of the community’s efforts and decided to assist.
With support from local businesses, community members have rolled up their sleeves to clean up the Umbogintwini River and surrounds.
Their hard work was acknowledged and appreciated at the Wise Wayz Water Care project launch at Umbogovango Resource Centre on Thursday, 28 April.
“Globally and locally, communities are finding the rivers they rely on for water and food security becoming increasingly polluted. These communities are often left with very few options to deal with the growing water crisis in their local environments,” said Kirsten Mahood of GroundTruth.
Six years ago, about 120 Folweni community members decided not to be victims of the consequence of poor river health and started working together as Emvelo Wise to clean the river, both in the stream and riparian areas of solid waste and alien plants.
Suitable cleared riparian areas are now used to develop urban vegetable gardens.
ImproChem, a subsidiary of AECI, was made aware of the community’s efforts to take ownership of their local water resources, and decided to assist in their efforts.
“Over the last six months ImproChem, with the assistance of Acacia Operation Services, GroundTruth and Durban Solid Waste, have provided relevant training, logistical support and equipment to Wise Wayz Water Care, a larger group which includes Emvelo Wise, enabling them to improve not only their local river, but also the rivers outside of their community,” said Mahood.
“Wise Wayz Water Care will also use citizen science tools to determine the health of the streams and rivers they work in. This initiative would not be possible without funding from the AECI Community Education and Development Trust.”
