The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in conjunction with WISA, the WRC and other stakeholders, including community volunteers, today embarked on a river clean-up to mark Mandela Day.

The need for water security, particularly in the face of global climate change and a multitude of anthropogenic impacts affecting our rivers, calls for a national and unified approach to protect our rivers, wetlands and broader catchments, such that all people can benefit from the added-value products of healthy rivers and can have access to clean water for basic human needs.

It is for this reason that the DWS would like to connect South Africans to their sources of water and the natural infrastructure that are crucial for a water secure future.

In line with this, as part of the Mandela Month, the DWS is leading a campaign of clearing rivers and others forms of freshwater ecosystems. This campaign is closely associated with community volunteerism, and corporates along the identified rivers.

As part of the Mandela Month initiative the following rivers were cleaned:

• Edith Stevens Wetland Park in (Lansdowne Rd, Philippi)
• Liesbeek River (Observatory)
• Plankenbrug River (Stellenbosch)