Are you looking for information about offers, devices or your account?

Please choose your local Vodacom website

Africa

No thanks, I want to stay on Vodacom.com

Media releases

Vodacom Group

Increased Litter in KZN coastal environment with heavy rains

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Kwa-Zulu Natal has seen an exceptional amount of rain over the last ten days. With severe flooding and swollen rivers causing havoc around the province, vast amounts of litter have made their way from the interior to the sea mainly at river mouths. Vodacom Beach Clean Up campaign cleaners added extra man-power to the municipal team who laboured to remove washed up debris from the Umkomaas River Mouth on Thursday (6 January 2011).

With municipal employees being hard at work from the early hours, the Vodacom cleaners were happy to offer an extra ten sets of hands to ease the work load. Over one thousand bags of rubbish were collected by the whole team, including tangles of fishing line, furniture, car parts, tyres and yards of electric cabling. As well as litter items, whole trees and other large organic matter are floating about in the tidal zone and being washed up to shore.

With the possibility of rain continuing over the weekend, Vodacom would like to appeal to all ocean users to be aware of submerged litter which is potentially hazardous. Rivers in flood transport soil from the inland into the sea which vastly decreases visibility, putting bathers and surfers particularly at risk of being injured by large waste items. For example a car bumper was washed up at Umkomaas, not something that one would be wish to swim into in murky water!

The Vodacom Beach Clean Up campaign kicked off on 15 December and will run until 7 January. The campaign is active at 22 beaches along South Africa's coastline, with ten cleaners per beach allocated to help keep litter under control over the busy holiday period. Vodacom is pleased to have been able to partner with municipalities, especially under the added stress of the current weather in KZN.

 



View previous press releases