HENNOPS Revival exists because there is a massive vacuum in institutional arrangements for the wellbeing of our River
A largely community driven organisation encouraging Active Citizens to help municipalities function better.
Dysfunctional waste water treatment works abound in our country resulting in sewage pollution in our rivers being nothing short of catastrophic; nothing can survive if this continues. We have visions of putting remedial plans in place to counter this, but will obviously require substantial funding.
Winter also gives us the opportunity to do more proactive work instead of the reactive rubbish picking in rainy season..
We have established a brilliant partnership with Talbot the Art of Water who sponsors regular water quality testing and this includes a full 12 weeks of testing between April and June, analysis of results and accredited testing.
This year we were blessed to partner with Brand IQ Outdoor Advertising, who met with me to come up with a multi-phased litter catchment system, designed specifically on my knowledge of the river, the floods, the litter, the flow etc.
BrandIQ fully sponsored a bottom up design, instead of top down as well as a number of clean-ups – helping Hennops Revival with sustainable job creation for impoverished members of community.
- Phase 1: To catch trees and large debris
- Phase 2: To catch that which passes through the first phase
- Phase 3: To catch finer pieces of waste
Phase 3 consists of a row of barrels which float across the river, anchored on one side and operates on a release system as soon as the water reaches a certain height, it will just pop off, so that we do not create dams or back flooding..
This system is working exceptionally well; I am very pleased with the results!
Our partnership with Anglo American Ambassadors for Good and Hydromulch initiated a pilot project with Vetiver Grass, placing pontoons into the river as an experiment to determine the role these plants could play in remediation, to test the leaves and the roots to understand what they are extracting from the water and causing them to thrive. We also did a bank retention project where we planted 4 000 slips of the sterile grass in an area of the river bank which has tripled in size over time, to retain the banks and regenerate the soil.
A number of successful community clean-ups were hosted over the course of the year extending the invite to the community as well as the businesses to join in on the days. These events were attended by key role players in the municipality; the mayor and MMC.
Together with our partners – Triple-P, Armour and KleenHealth we hosted the My Water Check Campaign working with the community to educate, theoretically and in the field to determine river health using citizen science tools – Minisass and basic water chemistry.
Hennops Revival has a 5 year Memorandum of Understanding in place with the City of Tshwane..
What started out as a single mother hosting a once off river clean-up at the request of her daughter 2 years ago has developed in ways I never imagined, including global recognition! I certainly did not see this coming, but here it is!
Please pause and reflect.
In 2021 Hennops Revival received a number of certification and awards:
- City of Tshwane – Certificate of Appreciation
- Caroline Reid Awards – Certificate of Appreciation
- Triple-P – Community River Health Conservation Training Certificate
- South Africa Prestige Awards – Winner – Environmental Organisation of the Year 21/22
- Enviropaedia Eco-Logic Awards 2021 – Winner – Eco Angel
- Enviropaedia Eco-Logic Awards 2021 – Top 3 Finalist – Water Conservation
- Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Awards – Safe Guarding the Quality of Water
- Climate 360 Competition – Winner – Biodiversity
Join the Riverlution!
