Cape Town recently experienced much-needed rains and as winter progresses, more rains are expected. While the recent rains may have caused flooding in some areas, the Central City was unscathed all thanks to the work done by the CCID’s storm water drains team.
The CCID’s storm water drains team falls under the Urban Management department and is put together via partner NGO Straatwerk. It consists of five members who are deployed twice a year (once before the winter rains and once before the summer rains) to make sure the drainage system in the CBD is working perfectly during the rainy season. And for each period, 16 shifts are scheduled across the CCID’s four precincts, namely, Precinct 1 (the Foreshore), Precinct 2, Precinct 3 and Precinct 4 (East City).
Says Richard Beesley, manager of CCID Urban Management: “Illegal dumping and littering form part of the major problem areas that we face as Urban Management. And that is why our recently concluded “It’s time to come clean” campaign specifically targeted these issues.
“What most people don’t realise is that litter and cigarette butts that are often discarded on pavements find their way into the City’s storm water drains and, come rainfall season - if these haven’t been cleaned out, the CBD will experience flooding. In June 2018 alone, our storm water drains team cleaned 654 drains and the debris they removed amounted to 4 578kg. So, the fact that we didn’t have any flooding in the CBD despite the heavy rains we experienced in the past weeks is a testament to the work done by our storm water drains team.”
CCID precinct manager, Mmiselo Ntsime, who manages Precincts 1 and 4 and walks the beat daily, observing changes within the urban environment, shares Richard’s sentiments: “Upon doing our inspections, both my colleague Carlisle Marankey, who manages Precinct 2 and 3, and I were pleased to see that despite the heavy rains, our stakeholders in the Central City weren’t affected in any way.
“What’s also important to note is that the infrastructure that our team cleans is quite old, but they manage to do their cleaning with the utmost care and diligence. They do an amazing job and I can’t imagine what would happen in the CBD if this type of service wasn’t offered. We would also like to encourage members of the public to assist us in keeping the CBD clean by always using bins wherever these are provided as doing this will help prevent litter from ending up in drains in the first place. And of course ultimately ending up in the ocean where litter causes even bigger problems, not least of which is the effect on our marine life.”
Images by CCID's precinct manager for precincts 2 and 3, Carlisle Marankey