Cape Town - The recent rainy weather has caused an increase in the amount of nappies, plastic, paper, shoes and other solid waste coming down the Black River and washing out into the ocean, leaving unprecedented amounts of waste on beaches, especially on Milnerton and Lagoon beaches.
Following increasing complaints by residents and beach users from the Milnerton area, ward councillor Fabian Kevin Ah-Sing resolved to have a massive three-day beach clean-up this past weekend and, starting this week, will have a team of eight cleaners servicing these beaches every day until the end of June.
The weekend clean-up was supposed to be a one-day event but the weather, combined with the sheer amount of waste washing out at the beaches, proved to be challenging, Ah-Sing said.
“Our cleansing team has had numerous cleansing operations on our beaches over the past few weeks, but they simply have not been able to keep up with the sheer amount of waste,” Ah-Sing said.
Ah-Sing said the core of the problem was illegal dumping and littering.
“We need to underscore our bigger problem here, and that is human behaviour negatively impacting on our environment,” he said.
Caroline Marx, director of environmentalist group RethinkTheStink and environmental head of the Milnerton Central Residents’ Association (MCRA), agreed that irresponsible littering and dumping was a huge problem and the trashing of community areas needed to stop, but the reasons for this behaviour also needed to be considered and alternatives found.
Marx said the amount of rubbish washed out of the Black and Diep rivers seemed to increase every year and this was not a new problem.
“It took three weeks and multiple complaints before an effective beach clean-up was launched,” she said.
“The large amount of litter washing up after rains is predictable, (but) where are the pro-active plans to deal with it?
“The massive clean-up is really needed and appreciated, but unfortunately much of the litter washed back into the ocean will be washed up again later, requiring repeated cleaning,” Marx said.
Gregory Player, founder of Cape Town Beach Clean-up, which hosts beach clean-ups around Cape Town on the first Saturday of every month, said they collected 38 bags of waste at Milnerton beach on Friday and called on all to join them at the clean-up events.
With the awareness created on social media, Player said there had been more action and clean-ups but it was an ongoing battle to keep the ocean safe from beach waste.
The City last year installed litter nets at eight stormwater outlets along the Atlantic Seaboard to prevent solid waste from coming through the city's stormwater system into the ocean.
This was a trial project by the local non-profit Pristine Earth Collective and Shark Spotters.
Depending on the outcomes of this trial, Mayco member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews previously said the City and its partners may look to expand the project to other areas along the city’s coastline.
Now community member are calling for litter nets to be installed in more places to help prevent the accumulating and recurring waste from reaching the ocean, as was seen in the Milnerton area.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za