FIGHTING COVID 19

SAVE together with The River Property and Safety Association and Riverside Rotary DONATE 2000 SANITISER PACKS

Thank you to FREEDOM PAPER AND SAPPI FOR the SUPPLY of TOILET PAPER.

“It was only a drop in the ocean, lots more needed to help the poverty stricken community”

– The Freedom Day Challenge

 

SAVE, The River Property and Safety Association and Riverside Rotary, represented by Malcolm Plant, Desi and Johan Du Toit, working with Rosemary Anderson of Stonehaven on Vaal, delivered 2000 packs of masks and sanitisers to informal communities at Bophelong, Vaal Oewer and the Barrage. SAVE’s Michael Gaade and Viccy Baker had already established contact with the Barrage informal community when they delivered much needed food parcels there last week and followed up with the delivery of masks and sanitisers, Masks and sanitisers were also made available to the front-line workers of Emfuleni’s Metsi a Lekoa division who face the threat of Covid 19 as they go about their essential work.

Riverside Rotary will be delivering these packs to informal communities in Mid-Vaal later in the week.

SAVE issued the Freedom Day challenge to all individuals, businesses and NGO’s to join SAVE in this effort. Funds deposited with the Covid reference and your cell number will be allocated to the fight against Covid 19.

Malcolm Plant noted that SAVE would like to do a lot more by assisting informal communities at the Vaal but the organisation’s major challenge remains the prevention pollution of the Vaal River.

DONATIONS CAN BE PAID TO:

Standard Bank: SAVE account number 0281049521

Reference COVID and your cell phone number.
Donations are tax deductible to qualifying donors. Please e-mail SAVE for a tax invoice.

UPDATE ON SEWAGE POLLUTION OF THE VAAL RIVER:
Six months have elapsed since SAVE’s first discussions with the Vaal Intervention team. The commitments made at the October meeting in terms of progress and communication has not been met.
In correspondence to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, SAVE’s attorney advised the Minister of these concerns and put the Minister on notice of our intention to continue litigation against the authorities
These concerns include lack of progress and co-ordination within the Technical Steering Committee. This points to a need for an independent, experienced and qualified project manager to oversee the entire operation. SAVE also expressed concern about the lack of feedback from the Vaal Intervention team as agreed at the October 2019 meeting.

Sewage pollution of the Rietspruit and Vaal Rivers continues with increased flows of partially or untreated sewage from pipes that have been unblocked without repairs to the dysfunctional Sebokeng plant. The Rietspruit plant is receiving an increased flow and it, too, operates at only 30% capacity but has to deal with larger volumes of raw sewage. SAVE pointed out the need to get improve the functionality of the treatment works and was assured that this would happen simultaneously with the unblocking process. This has not happened.

It is also note from an article in Mail and Guardian that some R212 million has been re-allocated by the Department of Water and Sanitation to the water tanks project.

Following the letters to the Minister, SAVE’s attorney arranged a virtual meeting with senior officials in the Minister’s office in April when we were assured of feedback and a follow up discussion with the Minister regarding our concerns. This is awaited

SOCIAL MEDIA
It is with much regret that we received the resignation of our Social Media Manager, Adele Andrews due to personal reasons. Adele has done an amazing job in building SAVE’s social media platform where she has developed a strong following with SAVE’s social media being a popular reference for the mainstream media. Adele has also worked tirelessly taking numerous journalists and TV production teams to all the pollution hotspots.

Thank you, Adele, for your excellent and professional work and your passion for the Vaal River. It’s going to be difficult to fill your shoes.

SAVE is therefore seeking assistance with social media. The right person will share our passion for a pollution-free river, be proactive and preferably be based in the Vaal. Expertise ad experience in social media is a given. If you know someone who would be interested,
Please phone Maureen to discuss further. 082-5705058.