Volunteers clean 2km of river every month

The Friends of the Liesbeek are involved in a range of projects along the stretch of the Liesbeek River. One of these many projects, is the monthly Liesbeek River Clean.

The monthly Liesbeek River Clean focuses on the section of the Liesbeek river that runs through the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP), sandwiched between the N2 and Observatory Road.

This section of the river is the last stop for trash on its way to the Black River, and eventually the ocean.

On the 1st Saturday of every month, at 8:30am, a crew consisting of volunteers and four paid workers meet up in front of the Wild Fig Restaurant.

Trash bags (sponsored by Tuffy), a well-worn pool cleaner, and a few precious litter pickers are handed out.

They don their specialised trash collecting gear (well-worn gloves and boots), and head off to a surprisingly satisfying day of hunting down detritus.

The paid crew of four and a brave supervisor sweat away until 3:30pm.

There is some reprieve as the Obs Kwikspar help keep workers and volunteers hydrated with a generous donation of bottled water and soft-drinks.

They cover a stretch of about 900 meters or 2 kilometres during each clean up because they do both sides of the river's banks.

The team tends to collect about 60 bags of trash along with the odd shopping trolley or even a car tyre or pram.

Their mounds of trash bags are then gathered up and transported to the dump by OBSID.

If you're interested in volunteering, please reach out to trash@fol.org.za.

A lending hand is always welcome, even more so if it's donating towards the R900 we need to finance a clean.