The 22nd of April is marked as Earth Day, a day to take a moment or two and consider your impact on the Earth. The Project Manager for the Liesbeek Maintenance Project, Jason, attended the Oaklands High School Earth Day programme. He gave a talk about the issues and importance of urban rivers both globally and in South Africa, entitled Urban Rivers: time to change course. The talk included raising awareness about the effect of storm water run-off on water quality, the ability for rivers to act as green corridors and promote biodiversity, as well as the concept for water sensitive cities design. The ultimate aim was to highlight the need for new thinking and to take different approaches for solving many of the issues around urban rivers.
After the talk, the school got the children involved with planting indigenous plants supplied by the Kenilworth Racecourse Conservation Area, for around their wetland garden.
A special thanks to Oaklands High School for having us on this day, and to be able to share our knowledge on the plight of urban rivers with the next generation of leaders.
Jason Mingo (left), Project Manager, receiving certificate of appreciation on behalf of Friends of the Liesbeek from Hylton Arnolds (right), the school coordinator for the Earth Day programme.
Jason Mingo with, from far left, Sabelo Memai and Tania Morkel from Kenilworth Racecourse Conservation Area and the learners, busy planting the donated plants.
