A little Monday comtroversy – Agree or Disagree
e-Mail received from a reader
Let’s predict the future of our town. The conversation goes like this.
Dad – “Hey kids, great news! We are going to St Francis again this year for our Christmas holidays ! ”
Kids – “Aah Dad – but there’s no beach”
The reader feels only one question remains. “Is their a direct correlation between the value of St Francis Bay properties and the amount of sand on main beach as we head quickly towards having no beach at all ? No beach is now likely to happen within 6 to 9 months as we add revetments that aide not prevent sand loss. When the Vallies get here they will have a few choice words for us locals, I expect.”
On the other hand — should we rather let nature take its course by doing nothing as the sea encroaches on our shoreline?
What do you think? Add your comments below.
Groins ! Get used all over the world for the same problem.
The beaches of Umhlanga & Ballito have also been under similar threat but they did something about it and now they have at least got something to offer Tourists. Even the main beaches in Durban have had to undergo efforts to save them and thereby sustain Tourism. Umhlanga have embarked on a similar SRA initiative and have now also constructed a beautiful promenade walk which is run and maintained under their initiative which is called the UIP as opposed to SRA. Beaches in the South of France also undertake some beach protection and recovery Using Sand Bags particularly during Winter storm season all this is done to preserve the tourist industry. Of course there is a correlation between the value of properties and what you can offer by way of tourism so for me it is a no brainer something needs to be done and soon
Let’s hope the Property Owners plan to get an EIA passed to pump the sand from the river to the beach plus probably build groynes will happen soon, and that the SRA is approved so that funds will be in place. Let’s hope that the whole project is completed within a few years. Without a beach (at all) in St Francis, property values will fall, despite the beautiful Cape St Francis beach. Richard Arderne, Pam Golding Properties
I moved to the area a little over a year and a half ago and at the time could not understand, with the very evident beach sand depletion, why groynes were not already in place. It seems a lot of fiddling is going on while Rome burns. Simple sand bag groynes would cost very little while being reasonably effective and possibly saving money on the more expensive revetments that are now called for. Surely a start could be made on the core problem without quibbling about finance for a more extensive project??
While we are on this subject, an equally serious threat to the holiday value of SFB is the siltation of the Kromme River. 50 years ago the estuary opposite Shore Road was 6 metres deep at low spring tide. It is now just a sandbank.
There are two sources of sand – the incoming tide, with the clearly visible delta off Shore Road; and the Sand River. This drains the Oyster Bay Headland by-pass dune field. Aerial photos from the 1940s show how this discharged prior to development of the canal system, and ultimately into the sea. The wind-blown sand continues to arrive above the R330 bridge, and has to go somewhere. This is into the Kromme, where it remains following building of the Mpofu Dam and absence of flood scouring.
There would seem to be only one solution. The sand from the dunefield needs to be trapped,mined and marketed.
Two issues here :
1. the original anonymous e-mailer states that the revetments are increasing the beach erosion ?
It would be informative to hear the backup for this statement.
The revetments are to protect threatened beachfront properties – if they are increasing beach erosion, surely some action needs to be taken ASAP ?
2. Groynes are not a suddenly-discovered magic solution for solving the beach erosion problem – this has always been merely one possibility out of a large number of other methods and procedures.
The plethora of solutions proposed (and some actually tried, with little success) over the years for St Francis beach is indicative of the complexity of the problem.
Every beach erosion situation is unique to itself, and a unique solution needs to be carefully developed, benchmarked and thoroughly tested before committing substantial funding to implement a possible solution.
Groynes just happen to form part of the current grandiose SRA Proposal by St Francis Property Owners (SFPO). To construct unsightly Groynes on the beach without the necessary due diligence on this solution, and without any guarantee that funds will be available, is extremely reckless, and might result in an even worse situation than at present.
Any solution would also require acceptance and approval from the Department of the Environment – no easy matter – recall the prolonged and endless hassles with getting such approvals to simply replace the bridge across the Sand River.