Silt from the Umfolozi River closes narrows and related mudflats

It is now June 2022, and the impacts of the GEF PRJECT (2017)  are being felt in the northern sections of Lake St. !uca, in the iSimangaliso Wetland park world heritage site. The assive  silt wall that forms the blockage cross the northern adges of the narrows is currentlybetween 2.5 and3  meters vertical above spring tide high water mark.

When the GEF PROJECT was implemented in early 2017 the contractors , who were paid by the IWPA, ( iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) connected the Umfolozi River directly to the southern sections of the St. Lucia estuary, ensuring that there was a flow path for the water from the Umfolozi River to flow directly in to the southern sections of lake St. Lucia at the northern edges of the estuary narrows. The mining spoil was deposited between the river flow path and the ocean. This mining spoil was flattened by big bulldozers and the excess was just pushed into the ocean.

This wall between the ocean and the river ensured that the river would not easily break open a channel to connect the river to the ocean. The proof off this statement is the physical height that the flood waters rose before actually opening the mouth on 14 April 2022 

So how did this big silt wall at the top end of the narrows grow so high ? 

Well this is he  start of the narrows as it flows from the lake systems into the estuary system. This is where the river water would join the lake water, slowing down to a sudden halt with slow swirling actions, dropping silt in the same location with each flood event. The silt deposits here were very significant. When the Umfolozi River floods, it carries huge volumes of silt. A fair volume of this silt ends up on the Umfolozi floodplains, but due to the activities of the GEF PROJECT the flood waters were not entirely attenuated within the Umfolozi Flats, so a fairly large volume of silt laden waters flowed in the GEF PROJECT prefered water flow paths, ensuring that the silt dropout zone remained static and geographically stable allowing the silt to settle and build up within the vast reed beds that have grown where there should be tidal water flows. 

This blockage grew and expanded  into a vast reed bed, which ensured that the next, and all subsequent flood event would use the same silt drop out zone, making the blockage a perminant part of the landscape. Smaller flood events soon failed to climb over this blockage, which ensured that the areas undervwater due to so called z#BACKFLOODING had all the fines and duper fines within the silt load drop out there where it is not welcome. One just needs to look at the dead mangroves along the estuary banks to see the nasty impacts of silt. The  fine silt prevents the mangrove roots from breathing, eventually killing the plant.

So each new flood event had to first nuid up to the top of this disturbingly big blockage before filing the lake further. Now once again the silt dropout zone would still be this well reeded blockage, making this blockage grow rather suppringy with each flood event. The last flood event which caused the Breach of the St. Lucia estuary mouth on 14 April 2022 left a considerable sit load ontop of this blockage. This is very evident and highly visible, coz the water levels in the northern sections of the lake are still not dropping. The silt loads in the system need to be explained  !

The estuary sceintists knew about  this issue of excessive silt but chose to ignore the silt issue altogether. This was a deliberate and intionio!!

!?nal decision .., many folks tried to raise the issue, but #UncleAndrew and his paid team also made sure that the public also ignored the silt issue, and gave the IWPA a MANDATE to push the GEF PROJECT s nthat it became a reality, and they physically connected the Umfolozi River directly to the St. Lucia lake systems, side stepping the natural filter systems in the Umfolozi River  flood plains and Monzi flats .

This was a very serious and drastic change to the silt loads introduced into the Lake St Lucia systems. Yhiscwas a never before sceintific experiment, and it has had some very nasty side impacts.  The changes to the waterflow patters of the lakes is really scary. What are we gonna do ? !!!

This means that the lake systems are no longer tidal,. As there is a very high sand bar / silt barrier between the lake systems and the esturine neater ways that connect the lake to the ocean.

Any ideas on your part ?

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