KwaZulu Natal Wildlife accused of 'holding back nature'

Breathing new life into a "dying", drought ravaged lake system, sea water briefly flowed into St Lucia again this week after the estuary mouth breached for the first time in three years.

But the delight of locals was short-lived. It was not long before Ezemvelo KwaZuku-Natal Wildlife moved in on Tuesday to prevent further inflow.

Using a bulldozer and pumping thousands of cubic metres of sediment dredged from a deep pool near the skiboat club, the authorities began sealing off the narrow section at the mouth of the Umfolozi from where sea water had rushed in during the spring tide.

As news spread that KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife was "busy trying to hold back nature", residents began arriving on the beach, and many of them were furious at what they saw.

It was evident that not since the early days of the 4x4 ban, prawn trawling off the backline and attacks on the main beach have emotions run so high among townsfolk.

They said they had waited years for the moment when sea water would re-enter the southern reaches of the estuary, where they say estuarine fish are dying in large numbers and crocodiles are "becoming canabalistic".

One resident believed that the estuary's eco-system had "already died" as a result of the decision to keep the mouth closed for so long.

Residents, including business people, tour operators and a few anglers, watched as sediment was pumped into the breach before a bulldozer moved in to start closing the gap on the north bank of the Umfolozi.

They did not mince their words when they spoke to KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife's St Lucia ecologist, Ricky Taylor, who had a hard time explaining that the closure was in the estuary's best interests.

In a token protest a few people tried to spread the sand with their feet as it was deposited to close the breach. They hoped that with a strong southerly wind the mouth would open again on the high tide.

"People are understandably very emotional. This town has taken a heavy knock since the beach driving ban and the closure of the mouth," said Ratepayers' Association chairperson Andrew Bester.

A German tourist, Philippa Cribb, from Hamburg, who was on the beach to witness the event, said: "No one here seems to be able to give me a scientific reason for all this. I am disgusted."

In a lengthy media statement on Tuesday, KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife said the Umfolozi was threatening to break through into the St Lucia estuary and plans had been drawn up to prevent this because of the very real dangers of "irreversible ecological damage".

They and the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Authority had recently completed an environmental scoping exercise to be submitted to the department of environment affairs and tourism as part of a plan to artificially move the Umfolozi River mouth closer to Maphelane.

"A very real danger of allowing the Umfolozi to connect with the St Lucia Estuary at this time is that should the Umfolozi come down in flood it will carry huge quantities of river-borne silt that will be deposited in the estuary before the river can breach into the sea," said the statement.

A further, perhaps more immediate, danger of such a breach into the St Lucia Estuary, KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife said, was that it would result in the massive ingress of sea sand and salt water.

"Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife and the Wetland Authority are unwilling to risk adding any further sediments to an already shallow system," said the statement.

The two authorities had agreed to apply a management policy that kept the mouth of the estuary closed until there was sufficient water in the system to breach it naturally - a condition that will only be created once the water level of the lake and the estuary are equal to or greater than mean sea level.

A breach when that happens would ensure that a strong outflow of water from the lake system would carry any marine or river-borne sediments away from the immediate mouth area.

It said that for some time it had being preparing the immediate estuary mouth area for the possibility of an eventual natural opening.

"A premature break-through by the Umfolozi River will completely negate the effects of this preparation."

Source: www.iol.co.za