KEEPING rivers clean is everyone’s responsibility as dirty rivers have a negative impact on the lives of many.

Some people are under the impression that because they have taps with clean running water at home they don’t have to take care of rivers.

This is according to Sanele Vilakazi from Duzi-uMngeni Conservation Trust (Duct), a body that works with the Msunduzi Municipality to clean rivers, from Msunduzi to Umgeni.

Between August and September Vilakazi said Duct collected 14 100 bags of rubbish from the Msunduzi River.

The body was formed in 2003 specifically to clean Msunduzi rivers and remove the rubbish, which is mostly solid waste - paper, bottles and the like.

“Beside finding solid rubbish we have also found animal parts and dead animals.

“There are a lot of people who use rivers as source for drinking water and for bathing. The quality of water is also affected, especially when sewerage pipes are blocked and sewage flows into rivers.”

Vilakazi said with summer around the corner children are likely to get sick because they swim in the dirty rivers in the holidays. He said when rivers are dirty it also becomes expensive for companies and people to clean them. 

“If we can keep our rivers clean, it becomes easy because people won’t get sick easily. We all have a role to play. People think they are not connected to rivers because they use portable water, but that is not true. People are not well informed about the impact dirty rivers have.”