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 

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 

The 4u2fish campaign is active and needs your views

Yesterday, 29 August 2019 I attended a public meeting called by the IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority to discuss issues around concessions and concession holders problems. At first glance most of the attendees at the meeting were impressed by the IWPA delegates and the new approach of inclusivity  by the management team of the park.

That being said, the team from the IWPA were either ill informed, or they were trying to pull the wool over the publics eyes.

This public  meeting was .held in the old NPB Auditorium in the village of St. Lucia and there were many folks from Sodwana bay and other outlaying areas of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The thing that stuck in my throat, and caused me to have a sleepless night was the fact that we, as local residents were told that the casuarina trees surrounding the ablution facilities at the St. Lucia estuary mouth were dying, and that this was the reason for their removal.

This in my humble opinion is a blatant lie, and I am not sure if this was dis-information or mis-information. Any body that knows casuarina trees  will tell you that these trees are extremely hardy, and that there are no known  diseases which kill them off here in Zululand.  Think clearly and remember which trees the dune mining companies use within their rehabilitation process after mining.

Casuarina trees were planted by the South African government ( way back in the late 1950's early 1960's ) to change wind flow patterns and protect our sand dunes after a rather tedious and lengthy study. They did their job very well, but the new science folks deem this to be problematic, and there was a great effort from the early 2010's to remove these, as the new scientific opinion was that these trees are now causing unwanted problems.  This debate needs to be held at a future public participation process meeting, where all sides should be allowed to question the scientific data available,  personally I believe that  the removal of the casurina trees along our shoreline was an error, as this was the only mechanism that protected our beaches  and dunes from wind erosion and the influence of coastal currents at the bases of our primary dunes along the coastline between Mapelane and Kozi Bay.

These casurina trees in question were keeping the estuary open and prevented the migration of the beach into the St. Luçia  estuary mouth. The road between Ingwe beach and estuary beach is already a few meters under sand and not accessible in any shape manner or form. This is the same area that is part of the St. Lucia precinct plan, where the current board walk ( from the Ski Boat club to the beach) is about to be extended.  The fact that this sand migration is not discussed and included in the EIA ( Environmental Impact Assessment ) needs some serious attention, as the ablution blocks were apparently removed due to their perceived problem location, which is the same location that the board walk extension is supposed to be, whiçh strangely has no problems at all.

This does not make sense at all, and somebody some where is about to be in a very uncomfortable position. The space is approved for new development, but the old development has been removed due to environmental stability problems.  So is there a problem or not? Were these trees really ill? Trees do not die without cause, casurina trees are truly hardy, and can grow in rather hostile environments.

The question is thus which information is correct ?  They are mutually exclusive issues, so some explanation is needed.

We thus need an explanation of what disease or problems these trees had, and what was the issue which warranted their removal and the removal of the ablution block that they were protecting?

What do you think that we, as the 4u2fish management team, should do?

Should we ask for the EIA ( Environmental Impact Assessment ) for the so-called St. Lucia Precinct plan to be revisited, and the Environmental Practitioner who approved this development to be investigated because the SAND FLOW ISSUES for the boardwalk extension appear to be some how ignored ?  Or is there some other explanation which is being withheld from the publiç domain?

Please leave a comment and share if you think that others should get involved.

#FRANKIE2SOCKS
#4U2FISH

Project work and Frankie two socks Enterprizes

What is Project work, and how will this impact on Frankie Two Socks Enterprises.

Project work is an Info4u supported project aimed at getting folks within the Mtubatuba local municipality working within the hospitality and tourism industry of the Elephant Coast.

Info4u is one of the corner stones of Frankie Two Socks Enterprises, and focuses on supplying relevant information to the world through the info4u web site found at www.info4u.co.za

Mtuba4u is an organization which focuses on the online marketing of all businesses within the Mtubatuba local municipality with the prime focus on tourism associated with the passing trade  generated through the recreational use of the beaches along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa. this web site can be found at www.mtuba4u.co.za

Frankie Two Socks Enterprises is a collection of organizations, including Info4u, Mtuba4u and others,  which run a combined FUFISM based online marketing business. The primary focus at Frankie Two Socks Enterprises is to ensure that folks within the Mtubatuba municipality  get their fair share of the passing trade associated with the recreational use of the Elephant Coast beaches.

Frankie two socks enterprises is thus in place to ensure that there is reasonable public beach access to the beaches in and adjacent to the Mtubatuba Municipality. These beaches all fall within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site, which places them squarely under the control of the IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, who are (at least in my opinion) not doing a very good job, and have successfully destroyed the local and domestic tourism market associated with the recreational use of our beaches, within the Elephant Coast.  Way back in 2004 a company called Acer Africa unertook some studies, on behalf of the IWPA in their efforts to understand tourism flow patterns within the Mtubatuba Local Municipality, and the Umkhanyakude District Municipality. read those here 

Specialist report  SRSEED

Specialist report SRTourism

These reports make for interesting reading with HIND SIGHT, as the economic losses predicted here have become reality.  These losses are very substantial, but no body is taking them seriously.  Not really sure why, but these huge losses seem to be irrelevant to councilors within the Mtubatuba Local Muncipality, who have not taken the efforts to address them.  In 2004 KZN TOURISM issues an occasional paper discussing these matters where they alledge that more than 20 000 folks lost their jobs within our region, due to the knock on impact of the 4X4 Ban.  which you can read here OCCASIONAL PAPER 20 

I will be taking this up further and you can follow me on any one of my social media profiles, or subscribe to this blog to be kept in the loop  

You can help by visiting this petition, signing it, share it  and then  asking your friends, family and others to do the same.