River soldiers fight to heal the Hennops
17 Dec 2020
Fresh ngo setting up wire traps to capture pastic waste flowing into the kaalspruit river in midrand. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Beneath a huddle of mealie fields in Tembisa, Willem Snyman and Sibusiso Dlomo are deep in the wetland trenches of the Kaalspruit, fighting to save the polluted Hennops River.
The two navigate a teetering mound of slippery floating plastic and polystyrene that has been caught in a huge web-like wire mesh litter trap they’ve erected. As they walk, their boots sink in the waste. But they no longer notice the stench of sewage and decay from the Kaalspruit, the most significant and dirtiest tributary of the blighted Hennops.