Nine years ago, the idea of river clearing inspired people in the Jelgava municipality. Having started with work on the Vircava and Svēte, the relay has now been taken up by Vilce parish.

River cleaning in Latvia mostly takes place based on the enthusiasm of enterprising people with financial support from municipalities, associations or European Union projects. The people of Jelgava were captivated by the fervour with which Andris Urtāns spoke about river restoration at a conference.

They decided to clean up their own Vircava river near Lielvircava manor – it is a beautiful place, but overgrown with water weeds and fallen trees in many areas. They invited Urtāns himself to act as an advisor so that they would not make any mistakes while doing the work themselves.