SAVE the BUSHMANS ESTUARY PETITION
SAVE THE BUSHMANS ESTUARY PETITION
Underwritten by KOSRA, BRRAG, Chamber of Business & Tourism, Estuary Care and the communities of Boesmansriviermond and Kenton on Sea
Aim of the Petition:
Note read the end
To stop Ndlambe Municipality/CES (Ted Avis, consultant)/KSDNA group (Directors: Robert Rose, Malcolm McKenzie and Steve Conradie, being only three residents who own property in Lands End) from proceeding with their ABSURD plan to bulldoze the Westbourne Rd dune towards the river mouth and create a VEGETATED SAND WALL that will continue to GROW HIGHER and BIGGER, that will cause SAND BUILDUP ALONG WESTBOURNE ROAD INTO A FULL DUNE system. This will IMPEDE ACCESS TO THE RIVER AND EVENTUALLY OBLITERATE A VIEW OF THE RIVER AND MOUTH FOR MANY PROPERTY OWNERS.
The aim of the underwriters and signatories of this petition is to save our estuary from private abuse of a public asset and HALT an irreversible ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER.
Historic movement of sand:
For thousands of years, Dry Bones Valley (DBV) was a conduit or a headland bypass system that allowed a portion of the sand that came into the estuary to bypass behind the Shelly Bay headland and continue on its course eastwards.
What was the cause of the By-pass to stop working?
To protect structures, branches were placed on the beach at the mouth of DBV and later placed almost to the mouth by Kenton Municipality. This was done over 30 years starting in the mid-1940s and finally stopping in the 1970s.
The result:
By the 1970s, all natural movement of sand was permanently blocked by the vegetation allowed to grow from the Port Jackson and Rooi Kranz seed pods. This vegetated dune grew in height and eventually extended to the river mouth. This process finally reversed when the sand started naturally rolling back on itself as a sandy dune. This process is still continuing as nature reverts to its natural state.
The Ndlambe/KSDNA/CES plan (in brief):
* Environmental issues: They plan to once again reverse the process by bulldozing the sand back and attempting to counter nature by artificially planting the dune again. Their operational plan is to place shade net barriers and lay branches at intervals across this sculptured dune and then plant dune shrubs.
* Other Issues: They plan to use small dump trucks to transport the accumulating sand from the Estuary side of the dune over a woodchip road running to the end of Westbourne Road. The CES report states 3 000m3 will need to be moved per annum whereas previous studies state 15000 m3 of sand feeds the dune per annum.
* This sand is to be stock-piled in a staging area at the end of Westbourne Road, opposite the road, in front of residential homes. It will once again be loaded onto bigger trucks and transported either through Lands End Road or via the fragile road network through Kenton and deposited on Middle Beach. No EIA has been undertaken to see if dumping of this sand at Middle Beach is environmentally acceptable.
* No consideration as to the effect the excess sand has on an estuary that is being choked by the net gain of sand entering annually. It exposes the Estuary to the ever-increasing risk of becoming blocked and closing, especially if Ndlambe falls short in its service delivery.
Save the Bushmans Estuary group (SBE group) proposal:
The wider Kenton/Boesmansreviermond Community now called the SBE group which includes KOSRA, BRRAG Chamber of Business and Tourism, Estuary Care (EC) and the community, has always aligned itself with EC’s proposal. This has remained unchanged for more than 30 years. The EC plan aligns exactly with the PRDW scientific report commissioned by KSDNA dated 30th October 2015. This proposal is fully in line with the MER report of 21st June 2022 commissioned by the community.
The SBE group proposal is to restore the natural movement of sand, part of which would be to restore DBV as a sand conduit to remove as much sand as possible from the choking estuary. We know that it will need to be managed from time to time, especially to minimise the nuisance of windblown dust affecting Lands End property owners. To do this it would mean:
* The removal of the vegetation in a 50 m wide strip through DBV to restore it to its natural state. This vegetation is not the natural state of this sand by-pass system.
* To transport an immediate 50 000m3 of sand from the dune by large dump trucks through DBV over a two-month period where it would fill the natural hollows adjacent to Middle Beach Car Park. This would lower the current dune height and relieve the estuary of some of the excess sand that is choking it. This would also restore the view of the river mouth for Lands End residents.
* To lay a one-meter-deep layer of sand on the valley floor. This body of sand would then feed the Middle Beach at a steady rate over time as the sand is constantly being fed from the Bushmans estuary. When maintained as a flat surface, there will be minimal airborne sand.
Future Maintenance
* The sand within DBV would need to be kept with a flat surface. With the hindering of dune formation, it would stop sand from becoming airborne and so become a nuisance to residents along Lands End Road.
* From time to time excess sand that will form west of the car park would need to be bulldozed the short distance onto the beach. This will restore the constant flow of sand onto the beach as happened before the Middle Beach Car Park was built.
IMPORTANT CLOSING COMMENT:
The operation is about to start as it has been ratified by Ndlambe Municipality at their Council meeting held on the 12th of December 2024. As an interested and affected party, are you prepared to allow the following to happen within the next few weeks?
* Besides the inconveniences already mentioned, will you allow: No–go bunting to be placed on the beach that will keep you out of the area, including access to Jacobs ladder or probably access to a walk through DBV for months at a time, every year, forever,
* Them to have yellow machines on your beaches soon where they will operate for 3 to four months a year, eight hours a day,
* A loader within meters of the high tide mark at the mouth loading several noisy smoke-belching dump trucks which will dump the sand across the road from residential property. The noise factor affecting residents on both sides of the river for miles around, cannot be overestimated,
* Lorries to trundle through either a current single-lane Lands End Road cul-de-sac, into a new to-be-made road and through a virgin Milkwood Forrest within the proclaimed Joan Muirhead Nature Reserve or
* Along Westbourne Rd, River Road and down Middle Beach Road for probably 3 to 4 months a year from 8 to 5 pm, 5 days a week. The safety of children walking to the beach, the noise factor, the dust factor, the cost to roads etc are not considered by the originators of this awful plan nor have there been any public participation meetings held to gauge public opinion,
* Them to dump sand somewhere at Middle Beach, again with a yellow bulldozer operating nonstop while the trucks are riding and this is between two Blue Flag beaches and on a stretch of beach that is constantly used by walkers
* Them to even start where an environmental study has not been conducted on the deposit site.
LASTLY, IF YOU ARE A PROPERTY OWNER, WILL YOU ALLOW THE MUNICIPALITY TO SPEND OVER R1MIL PER ANNUM OF TAX PAYER’S MONEY, PLUS INFLATION, ON THIS ILL-CONCEIVED PLAN, KNOWING IT WILL LAST FOREVER? THERE HAVE BEEN SCIENTIFIC STUDIES DONE THAT CONFIRM THAT THERE IS A NATURAL COURSE OF ACTION THAT ALLOWS A BIG PERCENTAGE OF THE SAND TO MOVE AT MINIMAL COST AND MINIMUM INCONVENIENCE TO EVERYONE.
IF YOU ARE NOT A PROPERTY OWNER BUT A HOLIDAYMAKER, A RESIDENT, A NATURE LOVER OR SOMEONE WHO LOVES BOESMANSRIVIERMOND AND KENTON ON SEA AND DO NOT WANT TO ALLOW THE ESTUARY TO BE SPOILED AND INCREASE THE CHANCES THAT THE RIVER COULD CLOSE,
BE BOLD AND SIGN THIS PETITION AND PASS ITON TO ALL WHO CARE.
Save the Bushmans Estuary group Contact the author of the petition