St Lucia estuary: action is now critical

While the arguments continue to flow, St Lucia estuary’s survival is at stake, writes TAMLYN HEAD

THE years have come and gone, but the same old debate around the St Lucia estuary persists.

To breach or not to breach? That is the question.

But while the scientists carry out studies – and argue among themselves – and conservation entities attempt to get answers from the higher-ups, the situation on the ground goes from bad to worse.

A recent visit to the estuary revealed what looks to the layperson as a sterile environment.

Walking down the (now flooded) estuary boardwalk some weeks ago brought with it not a bird sighting, not a fish jumping in the water, nor a single hippo grunt, and definitely no hippo sightings - a stark contrast from the state of the estuary just five years ago.

St Lucia is the largest estuary system in southern Africa, with a multitude of marine- and plant-life relying on its natural functioning for their survival.

Are the mangroves – which are a protected species – still alive or has the freshwater killed them off already?

This newspaper carried two recent articles on the St Lucia estuary – one about the Dukuduku communities threatening to take back iSimangaliso land because their farmland is flooded, and the other about the non-functioning estuary.

In both articles, two iSimangaliso employees – spokesperson and CEO – said the estuary must be breached.

The common sentiment was that manually reconnecting the estuary with the sea is the only way to both stop farmland flooding and see a functioning estuary.

So why has this not been done since the apparently once-off breaching last year?

While breaching the Mfolozi River to the sea (as was done for some 50 years) would be detrimental to the survival of the estuary, so is not breaching the estuary to the sea.

If the estuary needs both fresh and seawater to function naturally, why can a breaching and monitoring programme for the estuary mouth not be implemented?

There are many voices calling for the breaching of the estuary, and if this would solve the problem of the farmers’ flooded land and create much-needed interaction between sea and estuary, what is the delay?

Very rarely does one solution solve two issues, but this surely would.

At what point do we acknowledge that, once a natural system has been interfered with, it may never revert to natural functionality?

Granted, estuaries are never meant to be open to the sea 100% of the time, but neither are they meant to be closed 100% of the time.

While a Domoina storm may well breach the estuary naturally, it won’t miraculously cause it to function normally on an ongoing basis.

How many generations of certain species of fish and other marine life have been lost because they cannot spawn in the estuary?

How many species are on their way to extinction?

This estuary is the largest in southern Africa – does this not prove its importance?

Action is now critical, authorities cannot just sit on their hands and pass the buck.