Over the past weekend, the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Marian Nieuwoudt participated in the International Coastal Clean-up Day (19 September 2020) by attending a few clean-up events hosted by local organisations in Cape Town. The International Coastal Clean-up is an annual global event that challenges communities to do beach clean-ups. Each year, over 100 countries participate in the largest clean-up event to combine efforts to save the environment.
This year, the City of Cape Town decided to support and highlight the great work being done by local organisations and individuals who strive to help save our beaches and marine life from the devastating effects of solid waste pollution.
Three clean-up events and initiatives that stood out included the efforts of Sunshine Cleaning; Beach Co-Op and The Future Kids Club.
On Saturday, 19 September 2020, Alderman Marian Nieuwoudt was able to assist the Sunshine Cleaning volunteers in their efforts to clean the Blue Downs canal in order to prevent litter reaching the shoreline.
Thereafter she joined the Beach Co-Op team at Harmony Park tidal pools who arranged a clean-up event and assisted in creating more awareness about marine life among young learners. The Beach Co-op and their partners hosted a group of disadvantaged kids to teach them about marine animals at the tidal pools and showed them how to snorkel and see the animals.
Lastly, the City had the privilege of meeting Rocco da Silva of The Future Kids Club, an inspiring 10-year-old boy who launched a website to help kids and adults learn about ways to look after the environment and how to recycle. His vision is to help people become responsible for our future and taking action to make sure we have a clean and safe environment. He wants to save the environment and help make the world a better, cleaner place. The Future Kids Club participated in this year’s International Coastal Clean-up Day by organising a clean-up of the Lourens River mouth Helderberg Marine protected beach area.
‘It felt great to be out at the beaches and canals assisting these great individuals with their efforts to save our precious shoreline from pollution. During lockdown, these sort of coastal clean-up events could not take place so our beaches have definitely not received the usual litter clean-ups. International Coastal Clean-up Day was actually perfectly timed this year and a great way to kick off the efforts of these groups again. I would like to encourage residents to make contact with these organisers, as they are already heading up great initiatives that I believe will reap great rewards for the overall well-being of our beaches and marine life. The more volunteers, the greater their impact,’ said Alderman Nieuwoudt.
Every year, thousands of tons of garbage winds up in the oceans, which is very hazardous to marine life. The City therefore encourages all residents to make every effort to get out to our beaches and help to limit this problem by cleaning up any litter they find. Every bit of help in tackling this mammoth issue helps.
For more information about the organisations mentioned please see :
Sunshine Cleaning
A collaboration project between Santie Gouws and Ursula van Eck. Sunshine Cleaning’s vision is to address plastic pollution in communities adjacent to rivers and canals, preventing such plastic from reaching the ocean where it can harm aquatic and bird life; and ultimately restoring such rivers and canals for the enjoyment of the people living there.
https://m.facebook.com/plasticfreeriversandoceans/?tsid=0.7032780033067718&source=result
The Beach Co-op
A not-for-profit company that evolved from the work of a group of volunteers that started collecting marine debris at their local surf break, the rocky shore at Surfers Corner in Muizenberg, Cape Town in 2015. Their vision is to work collaboratively and creatively within ocean communities and with government and business to urgently protect, restore and regenerate the integrity of ocean ecosystems.
The Future Kids Club
The Future Kids Club hosts monthly beach clean-ups and provides a website to help kids and adults learn about ways to look after the environment and how to recycle. The Future Kids vision is to help people become responsible for our future and take action to make sure we have a clean and safe environment.