Cape Town - The Westlake community rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty cleaning the surroundings of the Westlake River and its wetlands, which had become polluted.
Under the name Westlake Wetland Group, the clean-up is now one of the Ithemba for Westlake Co-operation’s initiatives to restore and preserve the dignity of their community. The initiative seeks to protect nature and address environmental issues and raise awareness about marine and vegetation life conservation. It has been running since last month, headed by six residents.
Meshack Nchupentsang, the group’s chairperson, said: “This is a project we started in our community after seeing that enough is enough, we cannot leave our environment to go down like this. Our focus is to clean and sustain it to make sure people don’t dump in the river again. We want to make sure nature is conserved and the original inhabitants come back. We are in the process of redesigning the river to make sure it becomes an asset to our community. We want to make sure the water quality improves because the river flows into the Zandvlei and the Indian Ocean.
“We are part of the liveable urban waterways which the City of Cape Town will be implementing in 2024.”
They have since cleared aliens plants and removed dirt such as plastics, cans, metal objects and mattresses from the river and its wetland.
The group is supported by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) and Nature Connect. It hopes to get support from the City.
“It’s like a Russian doll, thanks to volunteer work by Meshack and his team of six. The water is a little clearer, the mounds of heavy, sodden, decaying debris removed after request to council, the stench less and the nearby sewer leak repaired. The smallest part, the least seen, but the most important as it is this more than anything that will influence the future,” said Mea Lashbrooke from Wessa Western Cape.
The City’s acting Mayco member for water and sanitation, Siseko Mbandezi, said initiatives such as this one by Ithemba for Westlake Co-op, of cleaning and preserving the wetlands in their area, were most welcome and supported by the City.
“These community-based initiatives currently do not receive financial assistance from the City’s Water and Sanitation Directorate. However, the directorate aims to investigate ways of assisting these communities and stakeholders,” he said.
Mbandezi said with the introduction and implementation of a number of the City mayor’s priority programmes, with the emphasis on improving the water quality within the City’s waterways and vleis, the City has seen a “remarkable” improvement in a few of its water bodies. “These include the Zandvlei, which is at the end of the Sand River Catchment. Note that the Westlake River is a tributary in the Sand River Catchment.”