By Sandile Dudu Saki
On 23 July, the Rhodes University Canoe Club joined hands with River Rescue, a non-profit organization that cleans up rivers in and around Makhanda, to clean up dirt and overflowing water in Makhanda’s West Street. The Canoe Club is often on the water doing what they are passionate about, canoeing. So, it was their decision to take responsibility for rivers in the town because of the state of pollution in our waters.
According to Daniel Dillon, a member of the Canoe Club, they get assigned a river on campus by the River Rescue to clean, “Because this water is for everyone, and everyone deserves better water. The rivers form part of our ecosystems and biodiversity, therefore it is our social responsibility to keep them clean” added Dillon. Needless to say, what they are doing is highly commendable as Makhanda is a water-scarce area.
Helen Holleman of River Rescue told Grocott’s Mail “It is simply not true to say that water is a human right. It is a human responsibility. We are the ones who need to care for it, clean it, and make sure that it is evenly shared. The Canoe Club has taken that step to clean water on the Rhodes University campus, to make it flow again. If we all did that, just imagine what a difference it would make to our rivers”.
The Canoe Club managed to fill an entire skip with garbage, sludge and vegetation that they removed to get the water flowing again.
