St. Lucia estuary and lake management basics

So  Where is the St. Lucia lake system ?

The St. Lucia estuary and lake systems are in northe east Zululand. KZN South Africa. The primary fresh water infkow how ever comes from the Umfolozi River and its tributaries. So the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems start just South West of Mapelane the stretch all the way north, both inland and along the Elephant coast as far north as the Mkuze swamps, where the Mkuze river and it's tributaries enter the St. Lucia lake system through the Mkhuze Swamps.

The St. Lucia estuary and lake systems form the core base of the iSimangaliso wetland park world heritage site.  iSimangaliso wetland park covers the area from just South  Mapelane, where the Jolly Rubino still lies on the coastal sand banks, until Kozi Baymouth  at  the Mozambique border in the North,  and inland for quite some way, crossing the N2,  (National Road) which connects zulu Land to the rest of South Africa.

The St. Lucia estuary and lake systems are thus in the southeast corner of the Umkhanyakude District municipality of KZN South Africa. map names in South Africa is an issue, as name changes for political purposes is common practice for us here

 The lake system runs parallel with the Indian ocean coastline, and stretches quite far north all the way to the Mkhuze Swamps, then a little more north at the extreme northeastern corner. In the old days, one could thus travel a little over 60 Km from the estuary mouth to the furthermost navigable point of Lake St. Lucia. All five rivers add fresh (sweet) water into the St Lucia lake and estuary systems.

The biggest estuary management problem is the silt contained within the rivers feeding the lake and estuary systems. Managing the sediment inflow is thus a  major part of estuary management. 

Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems is within the iSimangaliso wetland park world heritage site, and the iSimangaliso wetland park Authority is the legally appointed custodian of the iSimangaliso wetland park world heritage site. This makes the IWPA  or iSimangaliso wetland park Authority the responsible juristic person who is responsible for the St. Lucia lake and estuary ecological and environmental management.

This short video discusses the IWPA estuary  the management tactics and the impacts of these estuarine management tactics within the iSimangaliso wetland park. 

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The rather nasty biodiversity losses within lake St. Lucia in the Ssimangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site, caused by silt deposits of the Umfolozi River need to be addressed.  These water flow blockages are very significant, and rather problematic.

These ecological water flow blockages are problems which  have been escalated by the 2017 GEF PROJECT which connected the Umfolozi River directly to the lake systems in the northern regions, bypassing the natural filters of the Umfolozi flats, monzi flood planes and Mzunduse run off wetlands. This  should be expanded on within the web pages of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority

If you do not find any information on their pages please use their contact pages to find what you are looking for.

Perhaps your requests will make a difference.

Thanx for reading here.

Frankie2Socks  .Frankie2Socks@info4u.co.za 

St. Lucia estuary mouth is closing!

 This pic was taken on Saturday 11  June 2022.  The St. Lucia estuary mouth is where three water sources meet. First is the Umfolozi River mouth. Next is the lake tidal link and the third is the Indian ocean. In the past. The Umfolozi and Mzundusi overflow were managed separately from the lake tidal link. The main reasoning behind this separation was the vast quantities of silt within the Umfolozi River flood waters. 

The 2017 GEF PROJECT ignored this silt factor,  and the scientists appointed by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ran a very effective public perception management strategy to endure that the public accepted their rather nasty proposal to link the Umfolozi River directly to the rest of the St. Lucia lake systems, in their efforts to get water into the St. Lucia lake systems.

The results are now evident as can be seen here. Silt has settled in nasty places and clogged up the inter-tidal flow paths  Mud, mud and more mud  now needed to be removed.  This is going to be difficult.

What ideas do you have that may help us solve this problem ?

Got an idea ?  One that may help solve the problem ! Send it to 4u2fish@info4u.co.za

 

The silt levels within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems is  much worse than the IWPA is telling.  The tidal link between the lake and estuary systems is now a thing of the past, but we need this tidal channel to work so that the fish breeding and nursery grounds may become functional.  the St. Lucia lake  system used to sustain more than 60 percent of all fish breeding grounds in South Africa.  This is now not available to our fish stocks. thus is a rather nasty problem, and our marine fish stocks are suffering a very disturbing loss of juvenile recruitment , meaning that this is leading to a collapse of our coastal fish stocks.

what to do ?  everybody appears to be ignoring these losses of nursery grounds for our coastal marine fishes.

how will we bring this problem into the foreground of nature conservation and the management of our local  natural renewable resources ?

any help will be appreciated.   see our Facebook pages at facebook.com/4u2fish and leave a comment discussing your views on this nasty problem.

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 ?

Leave a comment!

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fish Campaign 

estuary managment in South Africa is getting attemtion from the govermenet

Estuary Management in South Africa has been neglected by the government for some time.  The issues around harvesting, consumption and sales of natural renewable resources within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site has caused a stir at parliamentary level, and the portfolio management committee for the Department of Forestry, Fisheries  and Environment has been discussing the related issues in detail.

The minister requested a scientific review of the reasons behind the Jan 2021 breaching of the St. Lucia Estuary, and this is about to get lots of attention. Some back ground info can be gleamed form this YouTube video.

 The minister has launched the report discussing reasons for Jan 2021 breach of the St. Lucia estuary. 

more about the issues around the Jan 2021 breaching of the St. Lucia estuary by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority 

#Frasnkie2Socks

#4u2fish 

the 4u2fish campaign supports the 7474dash21 campaign

The 7474dash21 campaign is in place to raise funds for us (4u2fish Campaign) to raise funds for our legal action against the minister and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority.

This is a very complicated affair, where access to and sales of natural renewable resources is at stake. The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland park Authority has iplimented policies and regulations that makes harvesting of natural renewable resources illegal. This is violating our economic rights in terms of section 24 (b)III

This is a huge problem as there are many different local communities who have been using these renewable natural resources as a  abstantial portion of their personal income and living resources. With these natural renewable sources out of the picture, these folks are in real economic distress, and basically destitute

which way to move and how to take legal actions against the authorities and relevant government departments which are violating our economic rights in terns of section 24 (b) (iii) is quite a serious issue. finding a legal team who are willing to take on the negative feed back and associated public critisism  from the GREENIES like those who ensured that the 4x4 Ban was successfully implemented is rather difficult. The reason here is the very high level, government assisted public perception management strategies which the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (IWPA) have implemented over the years. this has caused a major misconception within the public debate spaces and associated news paper 

Our best bet is to sue the Minister of Environmental Affairs for violation of our economic rights . We have started by requesting the public Protector to investigate these matters, and our file reference number  with the Public Protector is 7474 /  21 / KZN

more info coming just as soon as we have the resources to put it here and make any such info available to you our valued readers. so please subscribe to this blog should you want to be kept upto date with the issues connected to the FUNCTIONALITY OF THE ST. LUCIA ESTUARY SYSTEM .

My Good Friend Petrus Viviers runs a few YouTube Channels discussing many of the issues that impact on the ecology and related domestic tourism associated with a functional estuary and lake system Take a #PEEPSEE at his work and get informed about the St. Lucia Experience

Other links the St. Lucia Experience

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to visit Nibela on 1Drvrmber 2021

 The issuesurs of lost biodiversity within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is about to boil over into mass a tion by some negatively charged folks, who's forefathers have fished lake St. Lucia and surrounding waterways since before the times of SHAKA ZULU.

This biodiversity loss has been caused, then exacerbated by the management style and related policies, procedures, actions and inactions of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority.

The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) is the mandated Juristic person in terms of the World Heritage Convention act and associated legislations, which is appointed by the minister to manage the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site.

It is thus the duty of the IWPA to manage all the Environmental assets within the park, in the interests of the land owner as well as all of us as South African citizens , and ensure that the rights we had before the area was declared a world heritage site are not erroded or denied for any reason  or by any actions taken by the IWPA.

The government has introduced many new laws, acts and legislations since the IWPA took office in December 1999

The one that we are concerned about is the Integrated Coastal Management Act, which mandates estuary management plans for all estuaries in South Africa at three distinct and seperate levels. National, provincial, and local.

So the question becomes who is responsible for the local government component of the St. Lucia estuary management plan ? 

Because of the way that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site was declared as a DMZ or district Management Area, to ensure that local municipality influence was removed from the IWPA PLANNING mandates, it is our opinion that the IWPA should take excludive responsibility for the negative economic impacts caused by the current (December 2021) biodiversity problems within lake St. Lucia and surrounding esturine systems, including the Umfolozi flats and Sokhulu flood plains.

It is the IWPA duty and mandate to ensure that our rights to access natural renewable resources are protected and enshrined in the IWPA plans, policies and Procedures. The IWPA has failed miserably here, and needs to be taken to task by the minister. We will be pushing hard for this at the meeting on 1 December, where to buyhe disappearance of a local fisherman during a anti poaching opperation within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park along the northern sections of Eastern shores in mid November 2021 is the main item on the agenda.

Feed back will follow on December 2 

#Frankie2Socks