In a joint environmental public-private partnership initiative, GrandWest Casino and the City of Cape Town will join forces on Friday 23 March to promote the issue of water conservation during National Water Week, with particular focus on combating river pollution.
This will be the third time they have worked together with the focus on cleaning up rubbish and foreign objects from the Elsieskraal River Canal and storm water system.
In addition to staff and management from GrandWest, City departments involved in the clean up include the Parow Sub Council, the Solid Waste Public Awareness and Educational Communication and the Environmental Recourse Management departments.
Joining them on the day will be 35 learners from De Waveren Primary School and residents living adjacent to the Elsies River Canal who will work under the guidance of eight ‘River Wardens’ trained by the City’s Environmental Recourse Management.
A further objective of the cleanup campaign is to create awareness around the Elsieskraal River, its history and the negative effect dumping and subsequent blockages have had on the quality of the river and environment.
Unlike many cleanup initiatives, the project is not a one-off or a quick fix and will continue long after the cleanup is over. To this end, the City will commit to employing 40 permanent ‘river wardens’. The wardens will be chosen from the Parow Sub Council’s job seeker’s data bank to ensure unemployed people from the community benefit.
For GrandWest, the project is a continuation of the annual river clean up first initiated in 2009, with the full support of the City. For the City, the initiative forms part of the integrated catchment management project which honours the late professor Kader Asmal.
In phase one and two of the project, dense invasive and alien vegetation will be removed along with litter, while phase three will be ongoing maintenance. The wardens will patrol the rivers regularly to deal with problems as they occur.
The City of Cape Town applauds Grand West’s ongoing and active commitment to looking after the environment.
