The Rotary Club of Tauranga Sunrise Environment Committee would like to invite you to mark the first milestone of our project to raise awareness of pollution of Te Awanui-Tauranga harbour by stormwater. Tuesday 14th December at 10.30.
Ngai Tamarawaho kaumatua Tamati Tata will bless a site on the Strand opposite Red Square, immediately before “drain socks” are fitted to two stormwater outlets.
Extensive promotion, we hope, will stimulate ‘copy-cat’ projects in the community.
Your presence will be part of this promotion!
The aim is to promote sustainable management of the natural and physical resources of the Bay of Plenty’s coastal environment, as required by the Regional Coastal Environment Plan by raising awareness of the negative effects of stormwater, in cooperation with Tauranga City Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Ngai Tamarawaho. The drain socks (drainage nets) will highlight the quantity of waste, especially plastics, that enters our coastal water from the storm-water system.
Tauranga Sunrise Rotary’s role, having paid for the socks, (thanks to an award from BOPRC’s Environmental Enhancement Fund) will be to promote community awareness of the problems caused by plastic pollution. We suggest that the large plastic items from storm-water captured by the nets will provoke an emotional reaction in the community, stimulate engagement with the problem and develop kaitiakitanga in relation to storm-water management, including the damage caused by less visible contaminants. The installation will be highlighted and explained by signage.
More on this soon.