Em Watson grew tired of seeing the roads to Hartbeespoort Dam littered in rubbish, so decided to use her own money, and hired three guys to clean up.
Kosmos, Northern Cape – Em Watson loves Hartbeespoort, so much so that she decided to use her own money to make the area tidier.
For months Em has driven on the road towards Kosmos and been disgusted by the build-up of litter and rubbish in the roadside. After looking at the littered area and feeling resentful that nothing was being done about it, she realised she could be the one to do something.
She then hired three men who were in need of employment and had then clean up the littered area. Em was so happy to offer work to the eager men and happy to see the great job they did within just a few hours.
Em shared the news of her efforts in the hopes that people would be more respectful and not litter in the area.
“After months of driving past increasing litter on my way home, I decided to hire 3 guys from the side of the road to clean the road towards Kosmos. They collected over 15 bags of garbage today in just a couple of hours. They seemed grateful for the job. I picked up all the bags in my car to dispose of.”
Perhaps a better way of keeping Harties clean is to privatise litter clean-ups since the municipality doesn’t seem to do anything? I would like to tackle the dam wall picnic area where the bins have rusted through and overflowed but that is a mammoth task. In fact, the whole of Harties really needs a cleanup. I love Harties so much. It is a truly beautiful part of the country. I wish we could keep it clean.” – Em Watson
The community have praised Em for her efforts and agreed with her sentiment, which is that people should stop dropping litter thinking if there is a mess, it will create jobs. Instead, communities should be kept clean. Em hopes to inspire the community to join her in cleaning up the whole area.
“I learned today that you really need a bakkie to do this kind of job. I think I will organise a day maybe we could all get involved. Because actually 1 road is not going to make a big difference. It needs to be on a larger scale. Still the experiment showed today that people are willing and it can work”
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