'Paddlers discover 'sea of plastic' in Cape Town river'
News24 has published an interview with Kevin Winter on the alarming pollution in the rivers of Cape Town. The interview features the Black River, where waterweeds trapped many varieties of waste and clogged a section of the river, creating a cesspit.
Each year, an annual survey of Cape Town’s rivers is done through Peninsula Paddle, an initiative started in 2010 to highlight the state of the rivers between Muizenberg and Woodstock. This year is the worst amount of plastic waste they have ever seen, Winter states.
Water samples, taken by scientists, were also found to contain E.coli bacteria exceeding 1 million colony-forming units (cfu) per 100 ml.
"The health of the city is seen in its waterways and what I mean by that is when you look at rivers like this you can see that our city is really unhealthy…[Winter said he hoped highlighting the deterioration would be a wake-up call, not only to the city, but to residents who discard pollutants into the rivers]" - Kevin Winter, News24
Kevin Winter is an environmental scientist from UCT and water expert at the University’s Future Water Institute.
To watch the video and read further, follow the link:
