Durban comes together to clean up beaches

IT IS all hands on deck as several organisations came together to clean the debris on beaches in eThekwini following the heavy rain and floods.

Ann Kunz, the spokesperson for the South African Association for Marine Biological Research, said a team went to uShaka Beach last Tuesday and found the damage was extensive.

“We realised we would need more help from the public,” said Kunz.

She said apart from common litter such as bottles, they found clothing, shoes, furniture pieces and household items.

“At uShaka Beach, the area is mostly cleaner than it was, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Kunz said they were working with the eThekwini Municipality to ensure that all beaches were cleaned up.

“The municipality has been helping with transporting the loads of litter we gather from the beach to the recycling stations. They also have people picking up litter and raking the area. Everyone has been working really hard.”

Melanie Rosettenstein of uMhlanga Urban Improvement Precinct (UIP) said their multi-stakeholder beach clean-up started last Wednesday and was completed on Friday.

“The clean-up included local businesses and community members. The areas cleaned were Main Beach and Bronze Beach. The UIP deployed 22 extra staff and tree felling teams in addition to the usual cleaning teams to assist.”

Rosettenstein said the city had also deployed manpower and vehicles to help.

“As of today (Tuesday), the UIP is working between the lighthouse and Durban View Park, while the municipality teams are cutting up and removing natural debris left on Main and Bronze beaches going north towards Hawaan View.”

uMhlanga UIP is funded by uMhlanga Rocks property owners to help well-managed public spaces in the area.

Msawakhe Mayisela, the spokesperson for the city, said thousands of bags of litter were collected from various beaches. They included:

From Amanzimtoti and Pipeline beaches a toal of 8800 litter bags were collected.

From Warner, Winklespruit and Umgababa beaches 2700 bags were collected.

On the beaches on the Bluff, 300 bags were collected.

The municipality said the beach clean-up was still in progress and more waste was being collected daily.