Written by Aimee Granzier, SSA Youth Influencer ECS

After the heavy flooding that occurred in East London earlier this year, an excessive amount of hyacinths washed down from the Nahoon river, into the ocean, and onto the shore of Nahoon beach. The hyacinths are an invader plant species which had become extensively overgrown in the river. After the flooding, the river was cleared. However, the hyacinths that washed up onto the beach brought with them a substantial amount of litter.

Jamie, PL Kingfisher – right

Two days after the community recognised the effects of the flooding, the 1st Cambridge Scouts decided that prompt action was needed and they gathered on the shore of Nahoon beach at 9am, ready to pick up the litter. Jamie, who is the Patrol Leader of the Kingfishers, was the one to decide that they needed to take action. I spoke to Jamie about her motivation for doing the clean-up and supporting their community.

“The Nahoon beach was in great need of a clean-up after the floods, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to complete my community service for my First Class advancement” explains Jamie. “I felt it was important that we did the beach clean-up for environmental reasons since there were huge amounts of plastic and hyacinths on the beach which would be harmful to marine life had it floated back into the ocean.”

The majority of the time the Scouts were forced to wade amongst the washed up hyacinths in order to pick up litter.  When asked what they learned from the experience Jamie didn’t mince her words, ” We learnt how reckless people are with rubbish from seeing the excessive amounts of plastic”, she stated. “In total, we collected 18 black bags full. We also learnt how important it would be to create awareness around not littering. It’s important to do community service because we all need to do our part to keep our environment clean, to help those in need, and to make the world a better place.”

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