Friday, 21 May 2010 13:45
PORTAGING A KAYAK AROUND DANGEROUS SECTIONS OF RIVER is deemed prudent, even if it is a schlep.
But what about two blokes who carried their canoe the entire length of the Dusi Canoe Marathon this year; what’s with that eh? We discovered that an environmental message (rather than insanity) prompted Devlin Fogg and Andrew King to walk 138km in three days. So what was the Powerade Race for the River about and what did their three-day schlep achieve?
Other dying rivers around the world have been cleaned up. Did you draw inspiration from that?
Fogg: There are quite a lot of people around the world that have setup things similar to DUCT. DUCT is only really getting underway now and what we are doing now is to help them along the way and improve.Overseas the guys that are responsible for cleaning up the rivers are very serious enterprises with huge finance. They are doing an awesome job and maybe DUCT can get to that level as well.
King: It’s the honest truth that the Umngeni river is in a bad way. People come here every year to paddle the Dusi and last year 50% of the participants got sick. That just shows what a brilliant race this is, because year after year, people still come back to race it despite the state of the river. It’s our responsibility to nurture it back to life. We have to save this river otherwise we will lose the race, which will leave a huge hole in SA paddling - and multisport.
How will you measure the effectiveness of the Walk?
King: When Powerade approached us to do this concept it was a marketing strategy and they said we need to do something about the river. Never did we think though that we would get such support from the paddling community, people are aware of what we did and that was the whole idea for Race for the River, to create awareness for the work that DUCT is doing.
Who are the culprits?
Fogg: The corporate governance hasn’t been up to scratch. But another problem is public empathy, where most people have the view that it’s not their problem. The paddlers - through DUCT - can really have a voice though. They are in the valley all the time and they can help DUCT to police and clean up the river.
DUCT
The Duzi-uMngeni Conservation Trust (DUCT) is a non-profit public benefit organisation championing the environmental health of the uMsunduzi and uMngeni Rivers. It was established in 2005 by a working group concerned about the state of the rivers and in 2006 the group formally registered DUCT as a Section 21 Company. There are several ways in which you can help the organisation: donations, becoming a river custodian, joining an existing river conservancy or simply volunteering your time.
DUCT 033 345 7571, info@duct.org.za, www.duct.org.za
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