More than R10 million to date has been spent by the City’s water and sanitation directorate on cleaning and removing about 5 000 m³ volume of material from the Black River during its current dredging operation.
Dredging is taking place on a section of the Black River running alongside the N2, between the M52 Raapenberg Road bridge and where the M17 Jan Smuts Drive crosses the river.
A section of the Black River upstream from Jan Smuts Drive has already been dredged.
Mattresses, couches, trolleys, tyres, trees, a television set, construction waste and car parts were among the items that were removed from the Black River since September last year.
According to the City, this equates to about 650 truckloads of dried-out material that was transported to the relevant disposal site.
This work is being done as part of ongoing river maintenance and programmes to improve inland water quality.
Dredging is the mechanical removal of accumulated sediments/silt deposits, including invasive water plants, litter and solid waste using excavators.
Over time, this area has silted up and become concentrated with both pollution and alien invasive vegetation. The polluted top layer of sediment is being removed leaving cleaner sand underneath.
Excavators inside the river excavate the sediment and move the dredged material towards the riverbanks. The material will be lifted by means of a long-boom excavator to stockpile it 10 m away from the banks and allow for dewatering for three weeks or more before the material can be carted away to the relevant disposal site.
Georgia McTaggart, founder of Help Up, a “compassionate disruption” initiative that aims to remove waste from rivers and streets, says the initiative was born in 2018 after seeing the poor state of the Black River.
She soon mobilised a few volunteers and their goal is to remove rubbish from rivers by cleaning up before it falls into the river or flows into the ocean.
McTaggart says the group had been cleaning the polluted Black River, but they established that most of the waste ending up in the river was coming from the Jakkalsvlei canal.
According to McTaggart, they then redirected her clean-ups to the source of the problem and now have clean-up partnerships in Langa and Khayelitsha.
“We collect 4,2 tons of trash every month from areas of Cape Town that do not have adequate service delivery, cleaning at the source to prevent river and ocean plastic pollution.”
She says a lot of the pollution can be prevented by changed human behaviour. She says people need to become more “compassionate to the environment”.
A lot of what we pick up is household waste, as well as builders’ rubble. We need to consider that everything we purchase at the supermarket, if it’s plastic, it has a minimum 500-year life cycle. So, if you’re not going to reuse it, just don’t buy it. That’s the only way that the system is going to change if people change their buying habits.”
McTaggart says she is encouraged to see that there’s been renewed efforts to clear up the Black River from the city.
Zahid Badroodien, Mayco member for water and sanitation, says dredging at the Black River is on track. He says improving the water quality of inland waterways such as rivers is a priority for the City.
“I am very pleased to know the water and sanitation team is on track and 70% of the 2 km stretch of Black River has already been cleaned. Water quality here has also improved. This operation is also making the river deeper to reduce the local flooding risk going forward. The riverbanks have also been re-established to prevent erosion and sloped very well for better appearance of the river.”
According to Badroodien dredging will continue until April, if all goes as planned.
“The health of our waterways is everyone’s business.
“We are working towards becoming a water sensitive city, so this maintenance programme is one way to assist with improving the water quality in our rivers. Residents are reminded that they also have a part to play. He urged residents not to use waterways as dumping grounds for unwanted furniture, car parts and other waste items.
“Let’s work together to improve the health of our inland waterways,” concludes Badroodien.
