Waterways eyed for improvement

‘‘We found television sets down there.’’

A community organisation is on a mission to clean up South Auckland’s lakes, rivers and streams.

tara Waterways and Lake Trust chairman Richard Myhre says the organisation is undertaking a range of projects in south-east Auckland.

Its current focus is cleaning up Kerwyn Stream in Highbrook, which runs into tara Stream and eventually into tara Lake.

Six to eight months ago Myhre and volunteers from the Rotary Club of Highbrook got stuck in.

They sprayed the stream’s banks for the weed tradescantia, which he says was ‘‘a foot deep’’, and picked up a wide range of rubbish including car and truck tyres, and beer bottles.

‘‘We filled two large skip bins and a lot of that was just general household rubbish. We found television sets down there.

‘‘Now that’s cleared up the next step is working with Auckland Council’s parks department to clear some of the large trees. We’ll cut them down and start planting native trees.’’

Myhre estimates it may have been up to two decades since anyone tried to clean up the Kerwyn Stream.

‘‘We ended up with areas that were completely inaccessible. Even if you could walk through there, you’d have to fight your way through.’’

A recent water test of the stream revealed its E coli level to be 8500. For it to be considered wadeable it would need to be about 500.

The improvement work done so far was carried out by volunteers, but the trust will need to secure funding to continue its efforts.

The tara-Papatoetoe Local Board has been ‘‘very generous’’ in its financial support of the trust and its work, Myhre says.

‘‘Our job is to raise funding for the project work alongside other organisations such as the Manukau Beautification Charitable Trust, which does a great job cleaning up local waterways.’’

The trust could ask local industry to get involved with cleaning the stream, he says.

‘‘We may well go to other businesses that border the stream and say ‘ how about you take responsibility for your bit and your staff clean it up?’.’’

tara-Papatoetoe Local Board chairwoman Lotu Fuli says the board set up the trust and funds its work including planting and cleanup days and the successful recent ‘Neat Streets’ initiative.

‘‘Our board hopes they can go to outside agencies, organisations and philanthropists for more funding because we recognise this priority [cleaning up local waterways] is a long-term, aspirational one.’’