It is fair to assume that the petition to ‘Save the Spit’ signed by several hundred concerned SFB residents had an influence on DEDEAT’s decision to allow emergency reparations to commence on the spit albeit with certain conditions and restrictions. The input of the Municipal Manager Charl du Plessis should also not be ignored for there is little doubt his input resulted in the positive outcome. Threatened with severe consequence should the spit breach, they really had no alternative for it was mooted that either DEDEAT or the municipality, or both, could be held liable for any damage to property in the event of such a breach.
The question now that DEDEAT has allowed reparations to proceed does this absolve them from any claims should the spit breach say during the winter storms? But should the spit breach and DEDEAT and the municipality are absolved then surely all reparation to private canal walls and indeed even garden and home interiors will thus have to be borne by the individual home owner. So that begs the next question, would individual insurance cover pay for home owners damage if it is considered that they were aware of the potential chance of damage and made no effort to contribute to corrective efforts..
Hopefully the work being done by SFPO, the Riparians and Joint River committee should see them pump sufficient sand onto the spit in the coming months to bolster the spit through the winter storms and until a more permanent solution can be implemented.
Moving from the spit to the beach front properties where owners have had to spend hundreds of thousands of Rands in rebuilding the revetments to protect their properties being engulfed by the ocean. In a way these home owners are the final bastion against the ocean encroaching further into St Francis Bay. There can be little doubt the rock revetments are a temporary solution and can only be effective for a limited time. The beach simply has to be restored so as to prevent the daily high tide assault on these revetments causing them to slowly subside.
Many will say the beach is not their problem, or it’s a lost cause, or there is no way it will encroach further, or the proposed solution won’t work. With nothing else on the table surely it is worth at least trying for to do nothing, certainly won’t fix anything.
Reading between the lines of a Facebook post this weekend it seems the anti-SRA lobbyists are not going to accept the results of the SRA vote should it go against them. Let us hope they don’t drag this into the courts a la the Quayside debacle spending funds that could be better spent on saving St Francis.
Note: Those who regular use Cape St Francis beach probably wouldn’t notice but is it possible that thi beach is also starting to erode?
Good point perhaps one of the Insurance Brokers dealing with properties in St Francis would care to comment. I guess we all need to check our Insurance cover in such an event. we can hardly claim that we were not aware and it would be interesting if those that want something to be done would have a claim against the naysayers who have not as yet provided an alternative. Doubt that there are many such precedents to go on.
DEDEAT are doing their job so let’s not cast any aspersion on these uncorrupt, dedicated and hard-working officials. If we want to play the blame game, then how far back must we go? To the decision to stabilize the Santareme dune field, which has starved St Francis Bay of sediment? That’s a dead end. Also, bear in mind that if we had the legal and institutional resources of DEDEAT back in the late 1950s when St Francis was being planned, the area would not be facing the environmental crises that is does today.
We certainly were not throwing aspersions on DEDEAT and in fact praised them for their swift action realising that it could have taken a year or more had it followed the normal process. The point of the post was what are canal owners doing to ensure (or should that be insure) they are doing all the can to support the efforts being made to save the spit. The beach is another matter and certainly, had DEDEAT been around way back then we would not be faced with the eroding beach. That said, man causued the problem and man needs to fix it for mather nature will not take pity on us. Yes it is going to cost so it could be said we will be paying for the sins of our fathers.
Omdat mens deesdae baie hommeltuigfotos sien en na Google Earth kyk, kan ek nie help om te wonder oor die invloed wat die Sandrivier op die strand gehad het, teenoor watter invloed die Santareme sandduin gehad het nie? Die duineveld wat deur die sandrivier dreineer word, is groter. Sand op die R330 was algemeen in die ou dae en die sand lê die Kromrivier vol en moet nou daarvandaan na die strand gesuig word.