12 Years of SOUL
The SOUL Foundation (Save Our Universal Lands) has dedicated 12 years to restoring the endangered rivers of Africa back to health.This year, with WET-Africa (Waterway and Environment Transformation), they have committed to rescue 67km (42 miles) of the Jukskei River from its source in Bertrams, close to Ellis Park, Johannesburg, to its confluence with the Crocodile River.
67km for 67 years.
No mean feat. Nurturing 67km of a desperately ailing river back to health could be akin to the strive and struggle of one man's campaign for the rights of every South African. The WET-Africa Flagship 67 is the beginning of Kim Keiser's 12 year struggle for support and funding to clean up the environment, specifically through our waterways. When I first heard about this project my trusty laptop nearly went flying as my head made its way to the ceiling.
My Personal Fight
If you don't already know, I live across the river from a neighbour who uses the Jukskei as their dumping ground. Their despicable daily and weekly acts of carrying trash down to the banks of the river is soul destroying. For more than three years I have not been successful in putting a stop to this. Almost every available organisation or body has been subjected to relentless telephone calls and emails from me to approach these neighbours, who act in the most un-neighbourly fashion with numerous other unlawful acts, to stop polluting the river with their waste.
Contacts the Metro police, City Parks, The River Rangers, City of Joburg, and finally BRACe (The Buccleuch Residents Action Committee) have so far all been in vain. I know that I can ask a donkey to drink, but I can't make him drink. Humans are not donkeys. We can make them drink. By raising the pointy finger, flipping a fat fine at them, add a few months in jail, sorted. But we flap and flail backwards and forwards with excuses and passing of the buck, whilst in the meantime, the river sucks it all up.
A Holistic Approach
This is why my laptop nearly went flying. Not because the river was getting some useful attention, or even that it was getting real funding from the Clinton Global Initiative, to boot, but that SOUL has taken a grassroots approach to a universal problem, in turn creating hundreds of jobs and eco-enterprises.
Cleaning up the Jukskei is one thing, keeping it that way is another. Education is key, involvement with community is another, but the most exciting of all is the establishment of ongoing activities and developments into the future.
Eco-Enterprises
Recycling and establishing buy-back centres
Vermicomposting
Eco-agriculture
Bridle paths
Cycle paths
Walkways
Adventure activities
Eco-tourism
Tented camps
Eco-shop
Restaurant
Farmers market
Food, fruit and herb gardens
Medicinal plants
I'm sorry, I just have to say it: it's my ultimate WET dream.
