Citizens of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape recently gathered to raise awareness around the importance of Rivers and Wetlands in an overwhelmingly well supported River-clean-up day along the banks of the Plankenbrug River. 96 school children, municipal workers and staff from local businesses in the area joined Wildlands for a water themed “Citizen Day”.
Wildlands focuses on the creation of “green jobs” for long-term environmental sustainability. The national Land Use Incentives programme (LUI), funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) employs teams of people across the country to remove alien plants and plant millions of indigenous trees along sites like the Plankenbrug River catchment. In March 2015 Wildlands Stellenbosch LUI team, led by Lydia Willems, will be planting 4000 trees along the river.
The event introduced learners and teachers of the neighbouring Kayamandi Secondary School to what the Wildlands team was doing to restore the river; along with numerous donors and stakeholders including Wildlands Spier team, Cape Nature, Department of Water Affairs & Sanitation, DWA Resource Protection, Distell, Stellenbosch River Collaborative, Municipal officials, the Million Trees Project, Living Lands and WWF. Learners left with goodie bags and cool drinks – thanks to local businesses Chill Beverage and Distell. We also received donations of baseball caps and water bottles for everyone from the Department of Water Affairs & Sanitation.
In keeping with Wildlands uBuntu Earth Ambassadors’ philosophy Ms Willems urged the attendees to “be the change they wanted to see, as in working together more could be achieved”. Ubuntu Earth Ambassadors host Citizen Days throughout the year, as part of their mandate of effecting Good Citizenship across the country.
Teams were grouped into 5 and allocated sections of the river to clean with the guidance of LUI team and supervisors Thandokazi Daweti and Vernon Gqabaza for safety purposes. A water quality demonstration was also conducted by members of the Department of Water Affairs.
“We raised awareness by inviting members of the industry to see the work we are doing here, and the stakeholders of upper Eerste River got to see how bad the Plankenbrug River is, which flows into the Eerste River further down”, said Willems. “All are committed to continue their support of Wildlands efforts”, she said.
Councilor Pietman Retief, responsible for greening and beautification in the Stellenbosch area said: “We are supporting this initiative through one of our partners in the Million Trees Project – Wildlands, and we will continue to support efforts to plant trees and clean up the rivers”.
Simone Dale, Deputy-Director uBuntu Earth at Wildlands said; “this Citizen Day is exactly what our uBuntu Earth Ambassadors initiative is striving for. All spheres of a community coming together to create lasting change. It starts with us. We’d like to thank our Donor Rand Merchant Bank for their belief in this work”.