Frankie2Socks gets activated by water flow problems

 Greetings from Frankie2Socks.

It is late January 2024 and the Umfolozi estuary and the St. Lucia estuary  mouth are both still open to the sea and influenced by tidal actions.

The Umfolozi River has a net out-flow of water from the land into the ocean. The St. Lucia estuary mouth, on the other hand has other water flow issues that need to be understood and managed to minimize any future silt deposits, and ensure that these silt deposits from the Umfolozi River, drop out into the Umfolozi / Monzi flats and not into  the St. Lucia estuary or lake St. Lucia basin, which includes False Bay, Mkhuze Swamps, Catalina Bay, Makatan area, Charters Creek, Fannies Island, Bird Island, lane island, 

This is the ideal situation if we have water management rights within the Umfolozi River flow zone from rain to ocean.   But we have what we have and that is not managed in any way. There are no sediment traps, managed or unmanaged within the flow zones and catchment areas of both the white and black Umfolozi Rivers and the combined flow further to the ocean .

What to do and who to discuss this with. ????

Please leave a comment and start a conversation about the health of lake St.ucia and the St. Lucia esturine systems.

#Frankie2Socks

#4u2fish 4u2fish.blogspot.com 

Umfolozi silt closes intertidal water flow channels

 It is already spring in 2023,  and the St. Lucia Estuary has been open to the ocean since 14 April 2022. The heavy rains is March / April 2022  changed many things here in the Greater St. Lucia wetlands park region. Many pans filled up, and overflowed into the river systems that feed lake St. Lucia  .

the Umfolozi rivers both came down in serious floods, bringing tremendous silt toads and dropping thousands of  millions of tonnes silt  in places where it is now causing problems.  The farmers on the Umfolozi flats them selves have been complaining about this for a number of years, basically since late 2002.  Remember that the IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park  Authority  closed the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth on instructions from the minister of Environmental Affairs following the Jolly Rubino shipping incident. The Jolly Rubino had some nasty chemicals on board, which the authorities were worried about. The water flow issues would have allowed these nasty chemicals to enter the St. Lucia estuary systems, so to prevent this they mechanically closed the St. Lucia Estuary mouth, and then kept this mouth closed until it was mechanically breached in Jan 2021.  

the mouth stayed open until early June 2021 when it closed naturally. the only other time the mouth was open was for a very sjhort period in 2007, when the mouth breached from the ocaen side following a cyclone out to sea. this cyclone GUMEDE did not bring any rain to us, but did bring rather large surf.

WE do need to put things into context a little bit. The St. Lucia estuary system is a rather complex one where 5 different rivers feed the marine esturine systems and semi tidal lake systems.  the biggest is the Umfolozi, which the IWPA claims to be 60 % of the total fresh water inflow . see the video below.

 

 The Daily Maverick published a very misleading article found here where they say that the 

 

  breached naturally with the last floods in March April 2022.

tourism activities marketing with Frankie2Socks

 online marketing is a very complicated business, with many strange and highly effective tactics available to those marketers who understand #SEMANTIC MARKETING and related link-sharing tactics that connect your different online offerings together.

I do not like wearing shoes and socks, often going barefoot in town and when out and about. this gets me some very strange looks, which get even stranger when I do wear shoes and socks, coz I wear odd Socks. this has led to some local folks calling me Frankie two Socks.  For branding purposes, I have used the word /term Frankie2Socks as a personal brand, and some folks have picked this up and run with it.

A search for "frankie2socks" currently (September 2022) gets you quite a few results. I have just recently joined an activities marketing campaign with https://www.hejju.com/ and they set up my pages at  https://frankie2socks.hejju.com/  which should soon be found when looking for my brand  (Frankie2Socks)

My email addy is frankie2socks@info4u.co.za  and I will soon be posting to a subdomain of my website www.info4u.co.za at frankie2socks.info4u.co.za 

in the meantime, enjoy, take care and use a search engine to find the information that you need...

Silt from the Umfolozi River is a problem !!

Greetings to all who read here. 

My name is Frankie2Socks and I need your support in our efforts to restore functionality to the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems within and adjacent to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site in the Umkhanyakude district municipality of KZN South Africa. 

 The main problem in returning our wetlands and related waterways to functional status is the vast volumes of silt that has dropped out of the Umfolozi River flood waters over the years that the St. Lucia estuary and the Umfolozi River mouth were treated as a single combined unit. 

 In the post-GEF 2017 PROJECT era an exceptionally large volume of the sediment in the Umfolozi River flood waters was thus deposited at the northern edges of the narrows just South of Makakatana Bay Lodge, closing the intertidal water flow path, which are the fish migratory routes between the Indian Ocean and their semi freshwater breeding grounds.

This closure of the intertidal flow channels between the ocean and the marine fish breeding grounds needs to be addressed. 

This sediment / silt from the Umfolozi River now needs to be mechanically removed and placed outside of the intertidal water zones of the St. Lucia lake and Estuary systems. When asking around about the true volumes of Umfolozi River silt and sediment that went under the bridge on the N2, just South of Mtubatba I discovered that nobody appears to be measuring the sediment loads of the Umfolozi River flood waters. The river sediment is a really nasty issue. The Umfolozi River sediment, silt and flood debris must all end up somewhere. 

During the periods when the two systems were actively connected, large quantities of sediment and flood water debris ended up flowing into the Lake St. Lucia basin through the St. Lucia narrows. 

 The St. Lucia narrows has been closed out and silted up many times over the existence of the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands and surrounding rural areas. There is ample evidence of these past floods when scientists take a deep look. This time it is a bit different. The issues associated with global warming and changing weather patterns need to be put into perspective. 

Poorly managed agricultural practices and large-scale soil erosion due to landscape changes are prevalent and then there are the natural changes in animal migration in, and outside our many parks as well as human development and expanding rural populations. 

 There are truly many varied issues that have contributed to the extremely high sediment and and silt loads of the Umfolozi River flood waters. That being said, Just how much silt has come down the Umfolozi River ? 

To the best of my knowledge nobody has been keeping records of these issues. There is thus a problem in explaining how much sediment has been deposited within the greater St. Lucia wetlands region, including

•  the UMfolozi Flats, 
• the Sokulu farm lands and the 
• Umzundze swamplands. 

 Unfortunately, this silt and sediment has not been evenly distributed over the area, but has dropped out at key focal points where the water flows down for any reason. Within the mfolozi flats there are a number of such sediment deposit points, where some have caused major water flow changes, resulting in changed water flow paths and other nasty long-term changes to the general landscape. 

This has meant that sediment has reached new areas and caused new problems for farmers, and in some cases folks houses are still underwater in  September 2022. These silt deposits within the southern sections of the park from Mapelane to River View are scattered accross the landscape. 

In the Sokulu area farmers are still flooded out coz of the vast number of blockages in the Umsundze River flow path. 

 In the central St. Lucia areas from the mouth, moving north, these silt deposits are kind of levelled out, and flat, but at the specific zone where the river water collides with the lake water, there is a truly troublesome silt drop out zone. 

This nasty silt dropout zone at the northern edges of the narrows is substantial. This Heavy silt dropout zone has caused a rather high dam wall that now separates the lake system from the estuary system, preventing any intertidal actions betwen Lake St. Lucia and the Indian Ocean.

 This introduced silt dam wall at the top-end of the Narrows is not the only problem here. The entire  River narrows is silted up, the mouth area of the St. Lucia estuary is silted up. Nobody can tell us just how much silt needs to be removed. The numbers are scary, coz when we did rough guesswork,  and used those estimates, the answers had an awful lot of zeros.  

We did an informal science experiment to estimate  the silt load. We filed up some two-liter cool drinkemties with raw River water. Left them in the cupboard for a few days then evaluated the volume of silt/sediment in the collected water samples. The results were rather scary, coz we discovered that each single liter of water contained more than two hundred and 50 ml of sediment. Previous tests during high flood levels in the early stages measured more than half silt. 

 I am not aware of any person who measured the silt levels at the lower ends of the estuary before this water flowed into the higher ends (northern sections)  of the lake as was mentioned to / the architects of the 2017 GEF PROJECT.  the IWPA can not say that they did not know of the very serious potential threat, which became a reality that we are now living with. this silt is in place and causing problems.

 The scientific team that drove the 2017 GEF PROJECT were warned of the rather substantial sediment loads of the Umfolozi River flood waters, but chose to ignore this coz it suited their crooked agenda. This scientific team needs to be held accountable for their arrogance and deliberate exclusion of the silt issue. The silt from the Umfolozi River flood waters now needs to be mechanically removed.

 This is not going to be cheap. The longer we wait, the harder this silt will become, as bentonite does its job of binding the silt and turning it to clay. There is evidence of this action at the current mouth to the St. Lucia estuary. The clay n the estuary mouth zone is rather problematic and restricts the water flow paths which should contain sand flats, but is currently mudflats. We need some serious government intervention. 

What to do ? 

How to organize things ?

 Please leave suggestions in the comments. Frankie2Socks for the 4u2fish campaign.

My current mental state and sourcing funding.

Greetings to all who read here.

It is Tuesday 12 July 2022 and nobody is doing any thing about the massive silt blockages in the Umfolozi flats as well as lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems. This is currently an #EnvironmentalDisaster  of note.

The fish breeding grounds within the St. Lucia estuary system in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site are now not available to many different marine fish species, and the natural biomass generated within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems is no longer available as a food source for the coastal marine ecosystems along our coastline.

This is a big problem, and I am having a mental break down coz my attempts to have this problem addressed have failed. 

 The 4u2fish campaign needs your help in many different ways. Especially your moral support and your tongue touching other people's ears, so that more folks can talk about the very serious and rather nasty knock on impacts of the 2017 GEF PROJECT that connected the Umfolozi River to the northern sections of the lake, bypassing the natural filter systems of the Umfolozi flats and other connected flood zones that create the Umzunduze overflow tributary which joins the Umfolozi again near Mapelane.

There seems to be many different informal  groups and formal organisations doing things, but they are not talking much, and the public does not see any actions being taken. The folks at the northern sections of the lake are currently flooded out and the lake is truly excessively full, with a major silt deposits at the northern sections of the narrows being the problem, and locking the fresh water from the Umfolozi river into the lake system.

Lots of arguments here, but who discusses the silt problem

The natural renewable resources  like fish, crabs, prawns and others are no longer present in the St. Lucia lake systems due to the massive volumes of silt deposited by the Umfolozi River at a single location where the narrows meets the lake waters.

  During the time that the estuary waters were high, the reeds grew well and ensured better silt retention at the northern sections of the lake. This natural phenomenon ensured that a rather substantial wall of silt clogged up the water flow paths between the ocean and our marine fish breeding grounds commonly called lake St. Lucia.

The 4u2fish campaign needs your support to fix the problems associated with poor esturine management by the state and it's duly appointed representative entities. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority or IWPA is the custodian as per the world heritage convention act and associated legislation.

 I will be meeting wit hthe IWPA to discuss a way forward, and what needs to be done,  during the next few days.Once that meeting has taken place I will write more here.

Many thanx for reading our posts her on the interwebs. Please share further

#Frankie2Socks for the 4u2fsh campaign the 4u2fsh campaign.

The St. Lucia Estuary is closing fast.

 Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems are in real serious trouble. The 2017  GGEF Project has had many rather nasty knock on impacts. The major issues is that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority appointed scientific team which was in place to manage the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems failed to consider the rather large silt volumes that come along for the ride when the Umfolozi river floods.

 fresh water where there should be mixed marine  water

 

These scientific teams were well aware that the Umfolozi River carries rather large silt loads, as this was well discussed in past estuary management plans.  these highly educated folks, all with degrees and other high level education certification, chose to ignore the silt load within the Umfolozi river when it comes down in flood.

these scientific experts need to please explain... but we live in South Africa so ... ? what can be done ? 

The 2016 / 2017 GEF project connected the Umfolozi River to the St. Lucia lake systems, by passing the Umfolozi flats and Mzunduzi flood zone silt traps. This was achieved by lowering the Umfolozi river inflow, ensuring that the flood waters did not slow down and drop out the major silt load in the southern and eastern flood plains of the Umfolozi  River.

The end result is that the SILT WENT INTO LAKE ST.  LUCIA and dropped out at a most inconvenient  location. This silt dropped out at the same physical location with each flood event after the 2017 GEF project implementation this silt dropped out at the spot where the lake system joins the estuary tidal flow channel.. This problematic silt now acts as a rather nasty blockage within the estuary water-flow patterns, and denies access to tidal influences, ensuring that many marine fish species no longer have access to their breeding and nursery grounds.  The long term impact f this is a rather serious decline in fish numbers all along the South African coastline.

The nasty silt blockage at the base end of the St. Lucia Narrows, where the lake ends and the tidal flow channel starts, reached incredible heights  and is now about 2.5 meters (or more) above the spring tide high water level. I tried searching the iSimangaliso wetland Park Authority website at www.isimangaliso.com but this website is purely about tourism stuff and thus very UN-helpful. 

there is apparently no entity tasked with measuring the silt levels and related water flow patterns. 

we need some help to put true and nasty pressure on the minister to cometo the party and repair the damages created by the horrid and nasty mismanagement which has taken place under her watch. this should not be a SUPPRISE, cos there has been plenty of discussion about the JANUARY 2021 breaching of the St. Lucia estuary mouth by the St. Lucia community.  Unfortuntely the minister is not doing anything about the #FISHBREEDING and nursery grounds within the ST. Lucia lake and estuary systems.

2hat to do ?  comment and tell us your views.

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fish campaign.

read more at 4u2fish.blogspot.com 

 

Environmental activism is a strange thing ..

 Environmental activism is a strange thing, and creeps up on you. You usually only become involved in any Environmental activism project when the smelly stuff has already collided with the wind making machine. 

I have been skirting around the edges of the Environmental issues associated with the St. Lucia estuary systems, and now feel the need to step into the fight and push the issues of lost fishing rights and related economic impacts. 

These said fishing rights are divided into groups, where indigenous rights,  international tourism rights and domestic tourism rights each need to be looked at separately as well as collectively.

Today I will focus on some of the indigenous fishing rights, and associated matters.  I have discussed these before, in many different blogs, and one of the more important posts is found here   

http://frankie2socks.blogspot.com/2021/06/section-24-of-constitution-and.html?m=1

Section 24 of our national constitution is a powerful tool for every conservationist.  It is a short and sweet section, but very powerful, and rather explicit in it's intentions.  The biggest part of any law is it's purpose and intentions. This always comes to play when one challenges the constitutionality of any issue.

The department of Forestry Fisheries and Environment appointed an independent panel of scientists to look into the issues around the opening of the St. Lucia estuary in Jan 2021 by community groups in the village of St. Lucia, which is the tourism hub for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site in north east KZN South Africa.

This committee is has completed  their investigations, (end March 2022) and I did meet with them in November 2021. They have a very tough job, and need to be careful of how they handle the different public perception management strategies of the various role players.  If this committee does not wake up to the fact that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority use extremely powerful public perception management strategies, then they are gonna be in big trouble. Other groups like the 4u2fish campaign and the Revive St Lucia campaign also use public perception management tactics to push their agendas, and counter the IWPA where appropriate. Our strategies are seen as problematic by some, coz they have had way too much of Uncle Andrews cool aid.

So we need to bring in the BIG GUNS in, and fire s few salvos, just so that the debate can start moving in our preferred direction.  This is all about making sustainable use and gaining consumption tights of the "RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES" as supplied and sustained by Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system.

Previously big business ran a prawn fishery which harvested prawns on both the TUGELA banks and Umfolozi banks which run parallel to the KZN COASTLINE  between St. Lucia and Umhlanga Rocks. This venture failed when the IWPA closed the St. Lucia. Estuary mechanically after the Jolly Rubino incident in 2002 https://www.google.com/amp/s/mg.co.za/article/2002-09-18-jolly-rubino-starts-cracking-up/%3famp. 

The mouth opened naturally on 14 April this year (2022) after relatively high rainfall in March / April 2022, but the Umfolozi mud flows have caused problems just as the 1968 Estuary management plan discussed at great lengths. The big question was and always  is "How will one remove the silt after a major flood incident, should the St. Lucia Estuary mouth be closed and the silt flow heads north up the narrows and  into the lake system.

Well that has happened, and been happening since 2002 when the IWPA CLOSED THE MOUTH. Right now the inter-tidal actions are blocked by the silt in the system which is a above  sea level in many spots within the areas that should be inter-tidal.

What are we gonna do ,? 

What can we do ,? 

What options are left for us to take ?

It appears that we need to take legal actions against the minister of Forestry Fisheries and Environment as this person is the responsible person who signs off on the iSimangaliso Wetland park Authority Integrated Management Plan in terms of the world heritage convention act and related legislation.  The Department of Forestry Fisheries and Environment was well awear that this mud and silt issue would arise, but they told us that their scientists have better ideas, and they implemented the 2017   GEF 5 PROJECT, which connected the Umfolozi River directly to the northern sections of the lake, bypassing the natural filter systems within the Umfolozi Flats and the Umzunduzi spill over zones.

This was a very bad move where many local folks made big noise. But they were ignored on instructions from Andrew Zaloumis,. Who was the CEO of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park at the time. In my mind this was a crime against nature, and we can see the results directly today. The water levels at Sunset Jetty reveal the large volumes of silt and mud that have settled in the Southern sections of the narrows, as the levels have not dropped significantly. This channel needs mechanical help to wash out the silt and mud deposits.

The water is not flowing out the lakes northern sections fast enough to scour out the silt and mud deposits. We need serious government interventions and a large scale dredging plan, as well as water cannons to blast the silt free so that it may flow when the tide runs out and remove some silt after each night tide.

Read more about the St. Lucia estuary management issues here

What to do ? How can we force the issue?

Leave your thoughts in the comments and let's see what can be done.

Frankie2Socks

#4u2Fish. #Frankie2Socks #ReviveStLucia