Thousands of bags of garbage cleared from Black River
A non-profit organisation 'Help Up' in Cape Town has come with an initiative of cleaning up the Black River Raapenberg channel.
So far, Help Up has cleared 4,000 bags of garbage that would have ended up in the ocean.
The organisation uses volunteers and employs homeless and formally unemployed people to help clean up.
Speaking to Refilwe Moloto, Help Up founder Georgia McTaggart says extreme frustration prompted her to start the organisation.
We are looking beyond money, we are looking at how we can connect communities and how we can find opportunities for people to engage in the environment.
Georgia McTaggart, Founder - Help Up
McTaggart says they have found that the spills are coming from something called 'night soil'.
This is interestingly connected to the culture of crime. At night people in informal settlements lock their doors for safety reasons and they use the bucket system inside their homes as they can't walk to the toilets and in the morning they toss that out and it lands in the river.
Georgia McTaggart, Founder - Help Up
We've got fear, issues of infrastructure, bullies, violence and crime that are preventing people from feeling safe enough to walk to the privy.
Georgia McTaggart, Founder - Help Up
She says they have also seen construction waste dumped in places where it ends up blocking sewage systems.
We have seen piles of wet cement that have been dumped and it blocked the stormwater drains.
Georgia McTaggart, Founder - Help Up
Listen to the full interview below...
This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Thousands of bags of garbage cleared from Black River
More from Local

Tributes pour in for Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu
Gauteng ANC deputy provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi says they relied on Mthembu to raise issues with calmness.
Read More
Reserve Bank keeps repo rate unchanged at 3.5%
In November 2020 the bank also announced that it would make no changes to the repo rate.
Read More
Minister Jackson Mthembu passes away
In a statement, President Cyril Ramaphosa says Mthembu was an exemplary leader and a life-long champion of freedom and democracy.
Read More
Fedhasa explains its urgent bid to stop new restaurant pay rules
Fedhasa chairperson Rosemary Anderson says players in this industry don't have the ability to increase their margins, especially now.
Read More
Mmusi Maimane: I always thought I would be a Catholic priest
In this episode of Hanging out with Clement, Mmusi Maimane speaks about his childhood, his vision for South Africa and politics.
Read More
Mkhwebane wants perjury charges against her withdrawn as case postponed
Her lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu said that if the charges were not withdrawn, she’d make an application to the High Court.
Read More
Health Department can't confirm nor deny that SA will pay more for vaccine
The Business Day is reporting that South Africa is paying a lot more for the vaccine than even richer countries are paying.
Read More
SA records 566 fatalities and 12,710 COVID-19 infections
The deaths have pushed the death toll to 38, 854 since the start of the pandemic.
Read More
Consumers should not have to fight for right to access recorded calls
Why do consumers have to jump through so many hoops? Consumer ninja Wendy Knowler makes her case on The Money Show.
Read More
Inflation at 16-year low yet prices of everyday foods are skyrocketing. Why?
The Money Show's Bruce Whitfield interviews Kevin Lings, chief economist at Stanlib Asset Management.
Read More