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 

St. Lucia estuary is closed again.

 Greetings and THANX for reading here. I have had reports that the St. Lucia estuary mouth, which opened on 6 January 2021 closed again with the storm that we had as a cold front passed us in early June 2021.

Sunrise over eastern shores of lake St. Lucia, taken on the eastern cliffs of Nibela Peninsula 

The water levels at Mpilo Einde on the Nibela Peninsula are currently rather high. The issue appears to be the reed growth and silt deposits in the narrows and the delta around Broadies Crossing. The heavy reed growth and DELTA type waterflow channels here causese  water from the Umfolozi to slow down and drop it's silt load where it will cause the most long-term problems.

The fact that the mouth at St. Lucia is closed again is not a positive sign for things to come. Remember the 2017 Rehabilitation project undertaken by the Andrew Zaloumis management strategy, well it is my opinion that this strategy has caused serious damage to the biodiversity within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems. It has also connected the main stream of the Umfolozi River directly to the St. Lucia lake systems, without first flowing into the Umfolozi floodplains to drop off the the larger silt particles as the water flow spreads out into both the Monzi flat lands and the greater Umfolozi flood plains. 

This means that the greater portion of the Umfolozi River silt load is now being deposited within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems. This silt has been building up with each serious rain within the Umfolozi River catchment zones. When the flood waters subside, the silt remains. From 2017 till the St. Lucia Estuary mouth was breached artificially on 6 January 2021 these many tiny, small and mild flooding episodes within the Umfolozi catchment zones has each contributed just a little to the raising of the estuary and lake bottoms.

In some areas like the Sokulu farming zone within the base end of the Umfolozi flood plains, these large scale silt deposits have generated reed blockages which have grown to form water flow barriers, retaining high water levels at specific naturally occurring constrictions, causing long-term back-flooding.

This long-term back-flooding is a serious problem in the Sokulu farming zone, Which will only be solved by mechanical intervention, or dredging of the main water flow channels to below sea level.  This will be a mamoth task, just as dredging of the water flow channels between the northern sections of the lake and the actual estuary mouth, will also be a rather large task.

These are all, in my opinion logical issues, that can be easily seen, and understood by the average person. However past public perception management STRATEGIES of the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has laid a foundation of confusion around waterflow, mudflow and intertidal actions.

The base end of the Umfolozi flood plains in the Sukulu area used to be tidal once upon a time.. Long ago. Silt deposits from the Umfolozi River have taken their toll and filled the area with furtile soil over many generations. Now with " GLOBAL WARMING and CHANGING WEATHER PATTERNS" we as humans need to do what we can to firstly survive, then where possible prosper and enjoy lifes many bounties.

Enjoying something does not mean destroying the available natural renewable resources, so these need to be managed in a sustainable manner, and that starts with understanding the breeding and life cycles of our natural renewable resources. The St. Lucia Estuary and lake systems used to supply abundant natural renewable resources, and many up and down our coastline enjoyed this abundance. 

The extremely poor / bad ecological management of the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems by the Andrew Zaloumis management team has ensured that these natural renewable resources within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park have been seriously compromised, and in some cases even destroyed.

We want our heritage back, and have thus taken a stand on the issues around natural renewable resources and section 24 of the South African Constitution, which some folks will not appreciate, purely because their thinking has been contaminated by public perception management from those folks who want to see high end international tourism in places where nature provides us with sustainable natural renewable resources. These tourism opperators, and their high end investors, do not want to share with the folks who are living in the areas that they want to turn into tourism wonderland.

What to do ? Which way to turn?

Leave a comment and share your views.

In my next post I will discuss #Section24 of the South African Constitution. 

#Frankie2Socks 

Fresh fruit in St. Lucia crafts market

 MARKETING is always an expensive thing, if you pay others to do your marketing they need to be paid, and when you do your own marketing, it is even more expensive.

Most of the costs for your own marketing are  hidden costs, and the largest  hidden cost is your personal time.  Today most marketing is within the online environment,  where SOCIAL MEDIA is the largest consumer of your time.

When you take the time and actually do a proper costing, you will be supprised at the true costs of your online marketing.   The first thing that you need to do, is calculate  what your personal hourly rate is. Then work out the time you spend plotting your online marketing, and include the following, as well as all others that come to your mind when compiling the list......

Product or service research
Target market research
s
Data collection and related image research, followed by image selection

Image preparation  and related issues
Copy writing then adding any specialised HTML CODE which you may know about.
Next is the review of your online content before it is finally published

Once you have a true reflection of the work done and the true time consumed to accomplish this marketing, then multiply your hourly rate by the time consumed discussing and implementing the necesary actions to fulfil the purpose, aims and objectives of that portion of your marketing.  Now when you are an amature and still learning how these things are done, how  will it take you to accomplish tasks that profesionals, who know all the tricks, and have many tasks preplanned and pre completed, take hours to do?

That is why it is always cheaper for small businesses to out source their marketing.

Todays post is actually all about marketing the fresh produce, mostly fruits such as bananas, pine apples, advocado pears, guava dillas and other fruits in season, which are sold at the St. Lucia village arts & crafts market in McKenzie street across the road from the Avis car hire office.

There is a very large selection of arts and crafts at this market.  The pics here were all taken earlier when discussing the online marketing for the many ladies who sell their wares at this open air market space.

Thanx for reading my blog post

Enjoy and remember to share this further.

Imfino Zethu, your Green Groccer in St. Lucia

IMFINO ZEHTU IS A PROJECT WORK INITIATIVE

Imfino Zethu is a green grocer that will soon be based in St. Lucia by the sea, to cater for the fresh herb and produce needs of the tourism and  hospitality  industries within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa.

The basic concept for running a green grocer style shop that focuses on culinary herbs and related fresh produce came about when researchers working for project work evaluated the supply and demand chain for fresh produce such as herbs, spinach and the other fresh produce that would be used in high end restaurants as well as in the many bed & breakfast establishments in the Mtubatuba Municipality. The major focus was on a brief study within the high end restaurants and food chains within the St. Lucia village.

Our research team was instructed not to let the folks know that they were doing a #PEEPSEE type study of what herbs were sourced local and what was not locally available.   this was successful as I do believe that none of these guys realized that they were being spied on, so that we could evaluate the feasibility of a green grocer within the village of St. Lucia.  Well there is quite some competition when it comes to the standard fair of potatoes, onions, cabbage and carrots, but once one steps up in the market and starts asking around for things like jem squash,, Mswelies, Mbatha, Uqadolo or Imbuya, then you get asked what are you talking about.

Well these are traditional African greens, which all fall under the umbrella of Imfino.  Imfino is a Zulu Word which can be loosely translated as Green Leafy Vegetables. And Imfino Zethu can be loosely translated into English as Our greens or fresh leafy veggies.

The idea here is to establish a green grocer focusing on culinary herbs and African style Greens, so that a small group of farmers in the Dukuduku South Region of the Greater St. Lucia wetlands can have a sustainable market for their fresh produce.  We still need to do some work on the education side of things, so that the farmers can understand the needs of their client base, and package the herbs and Imfino in a suitable manner for consumption within that market space.  We still have some time for that as the first seeds have not germinated yet, how ever there is prep work on the ground in progress.

Our  lesson on the practical aspects of packaging their end products,  will be a small hands on tour of a few different retail outlets that supply fresh herbs to the public, and include, but not be limited to :  Food Lovers Market in Richards bay,  checkers, shop-right, OK FOODS, Richards Bay spar. Pick n Pay Mtubatuba, Pick n pay Richards Bay Board walk.

Project work will soon be getting its own blog, which will work together with my blog to promote all  tourism issues, focusing on using the beach as a tourism attraction, and living off of the passing trade associated with the recreational use of our beaches within the iSimangaliso Wetland park.

Project work is also discussed here 

Thanx for reading now please do share this with your social media networks.  we would really appreciate the extra exposure.

#projectwork

#FRANKIE2SOCKS