Hope for beachgoers
Municipality to finally act on sand blocking beach carparks
After months of complaints by beach users that the carparks at East Beach and West Beach have been obstructed by windswept sand, Ndlambe Municipality will finally address the issue.
The ‘dunes’ carpark at East Beach is worst affected, as after months of encroachment by the surrounding dunes, and few parking bays accessible, it is now completely covered and unusable.
Some dog walkers have taken to parking on the grass verge in Dove Lane and along Miles Bowker Drive.
Others prefer to park at the carpark next to the Kowie River used mostly by surfers, but with fewer spaces, more cars also park along the road leading to the beach.
Paul Parker was one of the residents who reported the matter to municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni.
He initially referred only to the situation at West Beach when he e-mailed Dumezweni on April 3.
“For some time now the sand build-up at the beginning of the walkway from the carpark towards West pier has been getting deeper and wider.
“It is now at a point where it is about 350mm deep and about 15m in width,” he wrote.
“It is very difficult to walk across this soft sand, especially for the elderly and it is impossible for the disabled.
“Please can you ask your team to resolve this problem as soon as possible and to keep the approach to West pier as sandfree as possible in the future.”
After receiving no response and seeing no intervention, Parker wrote follow-up e-mails on April 14 and 28.
❝ It's especially difficult for the elderly and is impossible for the disabled.
“My e-mails on April 3 and April 14 have still had no response. Not even the courtesy of a reply,” he wrote.
“It is school holidays. The situation is getting worse and worse.”
In his follow-up, Parker also referred to the sand build-up at both East beach carparks.
“This means that cars park in the narrow road approaching East Beach which is dangerous for pedestrians and traffic.
“This is a terrible advert for visitors to our town and in fact will cause them to holiday elsewhere,” he said.
“Please take action on all three issues.”
Parker received a response from community protection services deputy director Fanie Fouche, who wrote: “We as a municipality want to ensure that we comply with legislation, that [is] why we appointed a consultant in 2019 to conduct a Basic Assessment Report and Maintenance Management Plan for the coastal area relating to public/municipal infrastructure challenges relating to sand and dune matters.”
Fouche said the municipality had obtained an environmental authorisation to this effect, but the matter was delayed by an appeal to one of the addendums.
He said prior to doing any clearing of sand, the municipality had to appoint an environmental control officer, establish an environmental management committee and submit methodology statements to the Eastern Cape department of economic development, environmental affairs & tourism (Dedeat) in line with the environmental authorisation.
In response to TotT’s queries, municipal spokesperson Cecil Mbolekwa repeated some of what Fouche had said and added that the municipality was “identifying quick wins, medium- and long-term projects relating to sand dune encroachment/challenges that impact on Ndlambe municipal coastal infrastructure”.
Parker was grateful for the response from Fouche, but felt the municipality’s reasoning was over-complicated. “I am sure that merely removing sand that has been blown onto public access and parking areas does not fall under any process required by any environmental act. Only last month you [the municipality] removed sand from the parking area at West Beach.”
In 2014, Dedeat and the department of mineral resources were silent on the issue of vast quantities of beach sand being removed from the dunes at Cannon Rocks by a contractor who used it as bedding for an Amatola Water pipeline – part of the Ndlambe bulk water project.
At the time, Ndlambe Municipality denied it was doing anything wrong.