Oom Rudi and the bulldozers: SA’s largest estuarine lake mouth smashed open
The mouth of SA’s largest estuarine lake has been bulldozed open with heavy earth-moving equipment – in apparent open disregard for a High Court ruling and the scientific advice of some of the country’s most experienced estuarine experts.
Ecological experts fear that the artificial breaching of the Lake St Lucia estuary mouth on Wednesday poses a major setback for a multimillion rand ecological restoration project financed by the World Bank to reverse decades of human interference in the natural functioning of the heartland of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and World Heritage site.
Four years ago, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and the Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa won a landmark victory in the High Court against local sugar farmers who had demanded that the lake be breached to protect fields from back-flooding as a more natural water flow was restored to the lake. The victory opened the way to reconnect the Mfolozi River to Lake St Lucia, which has been starved of water thanks to nearly 50 years of human interference.
But the park authority, now under new management, appears to have buckled to pressure from local fishermen, sugar farmers and tour operators in St Lucia village, who have been pushing government and the park authority for a quick-fix solution by bulldozing the mouth. Proponents argue that an artificial breach would allow sea water to re-enter the lake from the Indian Ocean, increasing the number of salt water species, reducing sediments that have built up and reducing the risk of sugar farms being flooded in the Mfolozi River floodplain.
The authority has been sending out mixed messages, on the one hand denying it had sanctioned a breach, and also saying it would be guided by expert advice on what to do.
And when earth-moving equipment arrived on the beach on Monday, attempts were made to allay concerns by ecologists by suggesting that the equipment was there to “nudge the system” into opening naturally.
The authority confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that “equipment was moved on site to begin the implementation of a shortterm solution to help reinstate functionality of the estuary and re-establish links with the ocean” – but it did not explicitly state that it planned to bulldoze the mouth open.
Simultaneously, lodge owner and St Lucia village marketing representative Amanda Theron de Gaspary posted a sound clip on social media saying: “...They are not opening the mouth 100%... They are just giving it a ‘little nudge’, to use Oom Rudi’s words... So they are not digging a trench all the way to the ocean... You can speak to Oom Rudi.”
Yet by lunchtime on Wednesday the earthmovers did just that by ploughing a trench into the sea, breaching the mouth – and “Oom Rudi” (local resident and ratepayers’ representative Rudi Redinger) refused to speak when contacted him.
“We are not prepared to make any comment. We are not playing games,” said Redinger, who recently made a presentation to the park authority in which he suggested that the mouth be breached as the solutions proposed by scientists were not “realistic”.
Redinger has also been at the forefront of recent campaigns by St Lucia village residents to be granted greater autonomy, by “seceding” from the neighbouring Mtubatuba municipality.
The wetland authority did not respond to email queries on Wednesday about suggestions that it had acted surreptitiously or dishonestly by giving the impression that it simply wanted to “reinstate functionality of the estuary” with the assistance of bulldozers, when in fact its intention from the outset was to break open the mouth.
Professor Derek Stretch, a senior scientist and expert witness who gave evidence in the High Court strongly opposing artificial breaching, said on Wednesday night he was not clear about who had recommended the action – though it was clear that local farmers and several St Lucia tourism operators and B&B owners had become impatient and were pushing for the mouth to be breached.
Stretch is an emeritus professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal with a PhD in environmental fluid mechanics from Cambridge University and was director of the UKZN Centre for Research in Environmental, Coastal & Hydrological Engineering. He was also among a group of estuarine experts who recommended that 50 years of artificial manipulation of the mouth should be halted.
“I sincerely hope that they don’t persist with this [new] strategy to interfere with natural processes,” said Stretch, adding that he had withdrawn from a recent symposium held by the iSimangaliso authority, as he did not wish to be involved in processes where scientific advice was seemingly “trashed”.
Senior estuarine scientist Nicky Forbes, who was closely involved in a R72-million project to restore the lakes’ natural ecological functioning, said it appeared that the new management team at iSimangaliso were anxious to “get pressure off their backs”.
By bowing to pressure for a short-term solution, the authority was disregarding science experts’ advice and the breaching meant that the past four years’ fresh water inflows would start draining out of the lake.
Bryan Ashe of the iSimangaliso Action Group has sent questions to the park authority asking whether an environmental impact assessment was done before the breaching decision was made. He has also asked who paid for the breaching and the name of the company involved, and whether Barbara Creecy, Minister of Environment, Forestry & Fisheries, was consulted.
Creecy’s office, her department and the iSimangaliso authority did not respond to queries from DM168 on Wednesday afternoon, although the authority issued a media statement on Tuesday in which it said there was a need to reconnect the sea to the lake and to reduce sediment levels in the lake.
There was also a need to restore “estuarine functionality”, resolve back-flooding into agricultural fields and restore economic activity, including tourist attractions.
At a recent iSimangaliso symposium it was noted that while the restoration of the St Lucia Estuary/uMfolozi catchment connectivity “has the potential for positive longterm benefits”, short-term challenges for stakeholders remained and “ongoing interventions and monitoring may be needed to maximise positive outcomes.
“A key resolution of the symposium was to establish [a] ... multidisciplinary task team to take forward the resolutions suggested by the attendees of the symposium... A resolution was taken by the task team to recommend to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority that urgent action be taken to prepare the area to attempt to achieve a reconnection between the sea and the St Lucia lake, and Umfolozi and Msunduzi rivers.”