’Robe rows in to clean river

HEAVY LIFTING Volunteers taking tree trunks from the River Robe.

Anton McNulty

They say many hands make light work, and that was certainly the case in Ballinrobe on August 19, when an army of volunteers cleared 50 tonnes of debris and rubbish from the Robe River.
Over 60 volunteers from various sporting and community groups in Ballinrobe joined forces to tackle a kilometre-long stretch of the river, from the town weir to the military bridge.
Trash, tree branches and root stumps were taken from the river. A number of tractor trailers were used to take the waste away.
Local residents were joined by members of Western Lakes Cycling Club, Ballinrobe Watersports and the Community Waters Officer for the clean-up, which was co-ordinated by Ballinrobe Tidy Towns and Ballinrobe Smarter Travel.
Peter Heaps, the Chairman of Ballinrobe Tidy Towns, congratulated all who contributed to the clean-up effort, saying it showed the ‘great community spirit’ involved. He said the community had rightly decided that something needed to be done with the river, and he pointed out that the clean-up will help transform both the river and the locality.
“I’d say there was half a dozen long tractor trailers used to take away all the tree trunks that were in the river. Before the clean-up, all you saw were tree trunks sticking up out of the water. Now it looks like a natural river that is cared for and more appealing to the eye,” he said.
“The river is also now a lot safer for people using it.
It wasn’t safe for kayakers, because if they turned over in the water, there was every chance they would get trapped because of the amount of branches lodged there.
“The Lough Mask Rescue Team also said it would make rescue operations easier, as prior to the clean-up they’d been concerned about their boats getting damaged,” he said.
Mr Heaps praised the levels of cooperation between the various agencies, including Mayo County Council and the OPW, which helped before and after the clean-up. He also thanked people who gave mini-diggers and machinery to carry out all the work on the day.
Heaps added that the Bowers Walk is now a safer and cleaner environment, and that the reaction from the local community has been very positive.
The next objective, he said, was to clean up the town weir, which has become completely overgrown.