IMAGE: New stormwater drain litter trap at Hoedjies Bay on the Cape west coast
Sea Harvest has once again installed a litter trap to curb pollutants from entering the ocean via the stormwater drain outlet next to the Hoedjies Bay hotel in Saldanha Bay. The trap is the third the company has installed on the same drain – the first could not withstand the surge in pressure during storms, and the second trap was vandalised shortly after installation. The funds for the new trap were made available through the Sea Harvest Foundation, the not-for-profit vehicle through which the Company supports local community initiatives.
Sea Harvest’s Saldanha Bay Managing Executive and Foundation Chairperson, Terence Brown, says, “Sea Harvest is tenacious as a business, we are invested in Saldanha Bay, and we are committed to acting responsibly and protecting the environment. This means that we take our role as custodians of the environment very seriously. Therefore, while the failure of the first design and the theft of the second trap were very discouraging, we are, and we saw it as a challenge to find a new and improved solution.”
Brown credits one of the company’s interns, Philani Makhebela, a Mechanical Engineering graduate, with developing the improved design. “We presented the challenge to Philani and we are very proud of what he has achieved. He collaborated with various stakeholders, including an invaluable learning experience with Norsenet, to install the trap, which is sturdier, less movable, and designed for easy cleaning, making it more practical for long- term monitoring. While it still has to face the test of time, we are hopeful that the trap will do the job it is designed to do.”
Saldanha Bay Municipal Executive Mayor, Alderman André Truter Mayor, has encouraged residents and visitors to inspect the trap when-ever they are at the beach at Hoedjies Bay and to report any issues of vandalism, etc. to the municipality. He says, “We are very thankful to Sea Harvest and its business partners. However, the success of the trap requires a community effort. The optimal solution is to stop litter at the source, before it reaches our rivers and oceans.”
The Sea Harvest Foundation has, meanwhile, been engaged in another project to curb litter for the past three years. It has been engaging local schools through a Trash-to-Treasure project, educating learners and empowering schools to turn trash into treasure.”