The annual Mother of All Clean Ups along Christchurch’s rivers and estuary is this year taking it back home.

The event usually involves over 40 organisations and 750 volunteers and collects up to 5 tonnes of riverside rubbish.

However this year lockdown conditions have prevented the event from taking place along the waterways on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, so The Mother of All Clean Ups: Home edition invites householders to participate in a simple clean up activity in their own home.

“The activity can be undertaken by kids or adults in their bubbles and is essentially an on-line audit of their property’s stormwater set-up to raise awareness about how this impacts our waterways and what we can do to help clean them up from our own home,” says Evan Smith, one of the organising committee.

“The information from the activity will be helpful when we look to find ways to address some of the pollution entering our waterways from residential sources, without having to rely on expensive infrastructure fixes.”

The event is a collaboration of Avon Heathcote Estuary Īhutai Trust, Avon-Ōtākaro Network, Ōpāwaho Heathcote River Network, Conservation Volunteers New Zealand, Drinkable Rivers and Cassells Brewery with support from Christchurch West Melton Zone Committee, Christchurch City Council and Environment Canterbury.

“One of twenty prizes can be won simply by entering. There are eight $50 Trees for Canterbury vouchers, eight $50 book vouchers and four $100 meal vouchers for Cassells Tannery,” says Tanya Jenkins event coordinator from the Estuary Trust.

“It’s great to be able to mark the event again this year, even though we can’t go out in force to the waterways. We can still do our own little bit to ensure ‘only rain goes down the drain’ – without all the other rubbish and household contaminants with it!”

You can participate simply by visiting this link: https://tinyurl.com/MoACU2020, entries close Wednesday 16 May.

© Scoop Media