An inspection of the Little Lotus River has revealed that illegal dumping and litter remains a huge concern in polluting waterways.
On Tuesday 7 June a special committee consisting of councillors and experts in water walked 5 km along the Little Lotus River from Ottery to Fairways, Parkwood, Lotus River, Grassy Park and Zeekoevlei to inspect the waterway.
Councillor Alex Lansdowne, deputy chair of the Mayoral advisory committee on water quality in wetlands and waterways, said it was a top priority to ensure that “water runs clean”.
“We saw this canal has recently been cleaned ahead of winter as part of our winter readiness programme, however, sections have not been cleaned due to the fact that our contractor was not allowed to operate because there was conflict in the communities.
“The other big issue is the huge threat illegal dumping poses to water quality in the city.”
During his inspection of the waterways, Lansdowne says, he met with a father who lives closer to the canal and has become ill.
“I met a father today along the canal who told me the water quality near the canal is so poor that when the canal stinks, he has a son that is ill and just can’t get better from a chest infection, it’s a tragic story.
“The challenge is, we as the City of Cape Town can clean that canal every single day, but every night, someone is going to come along and do illegal dumping.
“The victim isn’t the city, the victims of illegal dumping are community members, sick children, people living in spaces along the canals.
“This is absolutely terrible.” He added that illegal dumping also poses a threat to the City’s infrastructure.
“So, we’ve looked at water issue challenges all along the little Lotus River. The second thing we have seen is the immense threat that illegal dumping poses to our infrastructure and the costs of illegal dumping in areas even where there are services available.
“Litter fences we have implemented are currently being repaired. Together with the community we will be clearing these fences regularly over the course of winter to make sure none of the waste goes into the Zeekoevlei itself.”
Committee member Tom Schwerdtfeger, from the Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei, said the amount of litter in certain areas was horrendous.
“I see that in poorer communities there seems to be more litter outside those areas, which I understand if you’re living in poverty and the only thing you are really worried about is where your next meal is coming from you don’t really see the litter the way that the more affluent areas do.
“The impact on the environment is absolutely horrendous; especially during the pandemic the difficulties with so much litter coming into Zeekoevlei, and though we do try and clean it up, it feels like you are fighting an endless battle. Unfortunately, illegal dumping does seem to be the biggest problem.”
“I’m very scared of what I see in the rivers and at this point and time I don’t really know what the solution is. My biggest concern is that at some point and time we are going to walk the big Lotus River and that it would be 100 times worse than the little Lotus River.
“We have been trying to get the litter fences repaired over here for the last two years. Just around the corner there is a mattress that has been thrown in. If they do fix the litter fence, as soon as the mattress gets across, it’s going to push the fence over again.”
He added that education was key to reducing litter and pollution.
“I think it starts with education, a lot of organisations have tried to educate people, but if you are so financially destitute, you have other concerns besides litter.
“It’s something that every Capetonian needs to take responsibility for, to get involved and make sure that there isn’t that much litter lying around.”
Ward 72 councillor Kevin Southgate said there are many challenges to terms of maintenance of rivers and canals.
“By coming along little Lotus River, they have identified the challenges that we as councillors have been concerned about for a very long time.
“I have Little Princess Vlei and Princess Vlei as well as Langevlei within my ward and we have the same challenges. Again, the illegal dumping is as a result of people using the waterways as a facility where they think they can dispose of the things that they don’t want, but it has a huge knock-on effect because it causes blockages in the inlets.”
Southgate says objects found in the canals include drain covers and broken canoes.
“There are all kinds of objects we have found, in some instances we have found tyres, drain covers, broken canoes that people no longer use and there’s all types of things that the residents find no use for.” He added that it takes a lot of money and human resources to actually attend to the issue.
“If we don’t do it on a regular basis, then the potential risk is huge because you will find residents coming to you to complain, not just about how it compromises their safety but how it negatively impacts on their health and I think that is one of the challenges.
“As the City we owe it to our residents to make sure that our waterways are clean, that they are in a healthy state and that they don’t pose any threat to the residents in the area.”
However, the City cannot do it alone and needs assistance from the community.
“It’s also important to recognise the fact that as the City we can’t do it alone and we really appreciate the partnerships that we have with friends of Zeekoevlei, the Princess Vlei Forum as well and these are all volunteers that have come on board and they put a lot of time and financial resources into trying to keep the waterways clean.
“We also put the call out there for more people to join, especially our school children and educating them about the responsibility of making sure that we keep our rivers and canals clean.”
