by Willem Snyman
This week fresh.ngo started the second phase of restoration and planted ten Cape Ash trees in Duduza next to the stream. The 100 metre area that was cleaned of huge piles of rubbish was also bare of any vegetation. This represents the start of a river bank park for the people. The trees are evergreen and were graciously donated by Mea Miti NGO. Being fast growing they will soon provide shade and a relaxing place to sit, banishing the chaos and showing the community that this fountain-stream can be much more than rubbish bin.
Following up on the Kaalfontein site it seems that the dumping has mostly been stopped. Unfortunately the stream is still grey with sewage and the rubbish bags from the community cleanup have still not been removed. Very worrying is the huge amount of thousands of tons of highly concentrated black sludge on the bottom and sides of the Hennops stretching all the way down into the Crocodile. If this is not treated with micro-organisms it will create an eco-disaster when flushed downstream with the the rains, smothering all life and difficult to reach on the bottom of the Hartebeespoort Dam.’