{"id":194091,"date":"2021-07-05T12:23:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T10:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/public-called-to-keep-rivers-clean-in-honour-of-madiba\/"},"modified":"2021-07-05T12:23:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T10:23:39","slug":"public-called-to-keep-rivers-clean-in-honour-of-madiba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/public-called-to-keep-rivers-clean-in-honour-of-madiba\/","title":{"rendered":"Public called to keep rivers clean in honour of Madiba"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Department of Water and Sanitation has called on South Africans to prevent the pollution of freshwater resources by cleaning up streams, wetlands, dams, canals and any freshwater source in honour of the late President Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n

The call comes as South Africa observes Nelson Mandela Month in July, which celebrates the late statesmen\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

The department will also this month kick start its annual Clear Rivers Campaign which serves as a call to action for ordinary members of the public to play an active role in cleaning up water resources.<\/p>\n

Departmental spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said the campaign aims to actively engage communities on the significance of protecting the health of rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we ultimately aim to achieve is to foster volunteerism among communities as a proactive approach to protecting our rivers, streams, wetlands and other water ecosystems,\u201d Ratau said.<\/p>\n

Initiated in 2016 by the department, together with business and civil society, the campaign coincides with Nelson Mandela Month which encourages individual acts of kindness aimed to make an imprint and change the world around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is for this reason that as a department, we are calling on everyone to dedicate their 67 minutes of goodwill activities towards cleaning up water sources,\u201d Ratau said.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the department is cognisant of the national COVID-19 regulations which do not allow people to go out in numbers to conduct such clean-ups, but urged them to make little changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits of healthy rivers are tantamount to the nation\u2019s health and economy. Communities benefit from clean and healthy rivers. Clean and fresh water assists communities in their daily activities including consumption, cooking and washing,\u201d Ratau said.<\/p>\n

He added that benefits of healthy rivers also assists the country\u2019s economy as different types of plants grow in and on the banks of rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the plants provide communities with building materials such as roofing for huts and or houses. Communities also use reeds and other wetland vegetation to make baskets, mats, curtain blinds and handbags, thus encouraging economic activity,\u201d Ratau said.<\/p>\n

The public can report the pollution of rivers and fresh water ecosystems to the department\u2019s hotline on 0800 200 200. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Water and Sanitation has called on South Africans to prevent the pollution of freshwater resources by cleaning up streams, wetlands, dams, canals and any freshwater source in honour of the late President Nelson Mandela. The call comes as South Africa observes Nelson Mandela Month in July, which celebrates the late statesmen\u2019s life. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-194091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/public-called-to-keep-rivers-clean-in-honour-of-madiba.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}