The Overstrand Municipality in Hermanus is minimising waste from reaching the ocean through implementing storm drain catchment nets.
The municipality is working in partnership with Marine Dynamics and the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, having been inspired by a project in Australia. The work entails placing large nets over storm water drain outlets. This catches up waste before it ends up in the ocean.
Anton Bredell, the minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has praised the work being done.
“Project Storm was started in 2019 and the first identified site was Gansbaai Harbour. The project has been successful and has huge potential. It also carries an education component with the Overstrand Municipality stencilling educational messages at all drain entrance points that reads: “Don’t Litter. The Sea Starts Here”. This is an exciting initiative and one we are keeping our eye on in terms of rolling it out further in the province.”
The net at Gansbaai harbour gets monitored regularly to assess the ‘catch’. Following 17 analysed net counts a total of 141.55 kg of waste was collected. The statistics were frightening with cigarette filters being a top offending item at 33 875 pieces collected in the one net. This was followed by food wrappers/containers at 12 389 and that included non-recyclable chip packets. Plastic bottles (188) and cans (127) were also prominent items found in the net.
Overstrand Municipality’s Senior Environmental Manager, Liezl de Villiers said, “The project requires time, energy, and funding and we were negatively affected in 2020 but we can now pick this project up again and both parties are committed to its growth. The Municipality will play a main role in the clearing of these nets as part of waste management. We will also make some funding available for this project.”
Hawston will now have one of these nets implemented next aiming to minimise waste reaching the Paddavlei, a fragile wetland.