Swaffham duck pond given fresh start
A TOWN duck pond which had to be drained after it became polluted is thriving once again.
A TOWN duck pond which had to be drained after it became polluted is thriving once again.
Engineers from Anglian Water were forced to empty Northwell Pool in Swaffham earlier this year after storms caused sewage to leak into the pond, which is actually and emergency drain.
The pollution damaged the pond life and surrounding vegetation and also led to the duck island slipping away from its moorings.
Since then the pond has been gradually refilling naturally and work has been done to re-plant the banks and re-anchor the duck island which had come away from its moorings.
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Dave Bek, project office at Swaffham Town Council, said environmental engineers had been delight to see how the pond was recovering when they returned to put some new plants round the edges recently.
He said: “The growth has been tremendous and interestingly some of the local plants have seeded themselves onto the island.
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“The manager of the EcoTech Centre noted that the biodiversity in the pond seems to have really improved since the clean up, with dozens of dragonflies and damselflies skimming the pond surface.”
Several hundred new Phragmites plants have now been planted around the pond and fences have been put around them in order to keep the pond's burgeoning duck population at bay whilst they become established.
The work was funded by grants from Norfolk County Council and Swaffham Town Council.
The town council are planning further work to enhance the environment around the pond in the coming year as part of the town's Advance Swaffham strategy.
