Page 24 -

ESTATE NEWS

NEWS FROM THE ENVIRONMENTAL TEAM

n this last article for Intra Muros, I’d like
to hand over to Leah something that is
Idear to my heart, and at the same time
thank the homeowners of Silver Lakes for
allowing me to be part of their ‘team’ for
the past six years! I enjoyed every minute
– and as a friend of mine said many years
ago when she closed her crèche, and we
all urged her to go on since we still had
other small children we would have liked
to keep with her… “stop when you will
only remember good things”. It is not that
I will remember bad things, but there are
so many good things, and I believe there
are many still to come for Leah. I also
believe one can become too comfortable
in a position, and you might start making
decisions…’just because you have to,’ or
because you think you already know the
answer. Therefore, before I get there or
loose my enthusiasm, I am handing over to
an awesome person, Leah, who has been
on the committee for more than two years.
We have had our ups and downs over the
past six years…but I must say mostly ups!
The hornwort is a big problem of the
recent few years and severe treatment
over the past few months lead to the
current, clean dams.
The photos on the right show, from top
to bottom:
• A home aquarium;
• The clubhouse dam in April 2018;
• The dam in March 2020.

From these images one clearly sees the
influence of sewage spillages from the
neighbouring estate’s pump stations, and
I know the next question is: Why not allow
the proposed Silver Lakes outfall sewer?
Will it not alleviate the spillages and
allow our own sewage to leave the estate
faster/better and leave the soil/streams
cleaner? No, it will not because our own
sewage lines will not be connected; it
will only be outside sewage. We have to
keep our noses clean by NOT PUTTING
OUR STORM WATER INTO THE SEWAGE
SYSTEM. We have been asking residents
to check on this continuously, and we are
also conducting an in-house inspection of
suspect properties so that pop-ups and
spillages can be kept out of our streams.
The hornwort will stay top of our
maintenance list - it will not go away until
we have clean dams. We also have to stop
emptying home aquariums into the dams
and streams!

22 INTRA MUROS APRIL 2020