The devastating mid-April floods in KZN not only wreaked havoc on the province, killing many and leaving others displaced, but also washed tons of land-based rubbish out to sea; only for much of it to wash back up onto Durban’s Blue Flag beaches. Morgan Griffiths, Project manager for Tourism’s Blue Flag beaches and sustainable tourism, said the beach stewards worked along all the beaches in the northern and southern coasts of Durban, as part of clean-up efforts.
“Funded by the National Department of Tourism and managed by WESSA (the Wildlife & Environment Society of SA) on Friday, 29 April, the stewards teamed up with youth participants from several organisations and government projects, in tackling the debris on Blue Lagoon Beach. These included: WESSA KZN volunteers, National Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment, KZN Department of Department of Economic Development & Environmental Affairs, KZN Sharks Board, CoastCare, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Working-on-Fire, eThekwini Metro: Durban Solid Waste, Green Corridors and other volunteers.
“The Minister for the Environment: Dr Barbara Crecy, KZN MEC for Economic Development Tourism & Environmental Affairs: Mr Ravi Pillay and eThekwini Executive Mayor: Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda presided over this event, as we collected large rubbish items, especially plastic bottles, however, the millions of foam and polystyrene shards caught up in the piles of debris were more laborious to tackle,” Griffiths said. He added that in many places, a mere square metre of beach could yield enough shards to half fill a rubbish bag.
“The challenge over the next few weeks is to collect up these shards before the sun, wind and sand breaks down these large shards into plastic pellets, too small and numerous to collect by hand. So far, the cleaners are making a noticeable impact to clean up our beaches, our environmental and tourism treasure,” Griffiths said.
