Spruit Day 2017 a huge success for the city

26 September 2017

 

Over 650 people rolled up their sleeves, waded through knee-deep water and filled bags with litter during the annual Spruit Day this past weekend.

 

Organised by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, the champions in keeping Joburg green, together with 28 resident associations and special interest groups, the event saw scores of residents hard at work cleaning, clearing and beautifying over 35kms of the Braamfontein Spruit.

Residents and City of Johannesburg officials picked up litter, removed foreign objects that caused blockages to the natural flow of the spruit, removed of alien invasive plants and planted indigenous trees that will ensure that the integrity of the spruit is retained.

More than a thousand bags of litter were collected, over a thousand bags of litter, 150 anti-dumping billboards installed in Bryanston East along the spruit and a jungle gym at the Field & Study Centre in Parkmore was repainted.

Johannesburg City Parks’s Meghan Perry, who was one of the event organisers, said that she is amazed at the increasing number of people who showed their support.

“This year’s mass action clean-up went very well, with more residents engaging in the initiative. The gathering of more volunteers than the previous years shows that Spruit Day resonates with the people,” Perry said.

She said she hoped more people will continue to support such initiatives in order to achieve a cleaner Joburg.

Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Development in the City of Joburg, Councillor Nonhlanhla Sifumba, commended the many resident associations and residents who worked together to clean up the Braamfontein Spruit. 

“The annual Spruit Day clean-up is testimony that residents are heeding the City’s call to keeping Joburg clean and green. As South Africa’s greenest metropolitan municipality for 2017- our continued, collective efforts will go a long way in preserving the integrity of the environment,” MMC Sifumba said.