Limerick City Tidy Towns issues challenge to spruce up the Shannon
THE RIVER Shannon and its banks are to get a welcome spring clean this weekend.
On Sunday, volunteers from Limerick City Tidy Towns will take part in a one day challenge to spruce up Limerick’s riverside.
It’s the idea of local volunteer Mohamed Ferhat, who last week was honoured with a community award at St Mary’s Cathedral.
He, alongside Tidy Towns chair Helen O’Donnell want to see the river looking its best ahead of the peak tourist season.
She said: “We are asking people who have canoes and who have boats on the rivers to come and help us as it needs to be very carefully done. People in the river can hopefully get a lot of plastic from under the water.”
While it’s hoped boat clubs in the vicinity will come out on kayaks, volunteers will be required on the riverbank, armed with extendable rubbish pickers to assist the kayakers.
Early indications are that there should be reasonably sunny weather this weekend, giving a boost to Tidy Towns volunteers, who have not been able to do as much as they’d like to have done in the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Helen added: “I hope we have reasonable weather on this day. I am really anxious that we do this before the growth starts - there’s a lot of that along the river. I hope we can get plastic bottles and bags out the river. I'd hope we have a number of kayakers and boat club volunteers to help. We are putting a lot of work between now and them.”
Happily, Helen added many people have already been in touch to offer their support.
Another Tidy Towns volunteer, Micheal O’Connell said he was very proud to see Tidy Town stalwart Mohamed (friends call him Mo) win a community award.
“It is fantastic. He well deserves it. He is out every day, rain snow. No problem,” Micheal said.
If you want to get involved, please telephone 061 312662 after 10am on weekdays, and outside the lunch hour.