Silt management in the St. Lucia estuary needs to be addressed

 The St. Lucia lake and estuary system has suffered a very serious biodiversity collapse following the 2017 GEF funded project that connected the Umfolozi River to lake St. Lucia and associated estuarine systems in the northern areas of the Greater St. Lucia wetlands park. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is the management authority for these lands.

The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority pushed forward with this planned intervention, even though many folks here on the ground objected in the strongest possible terms.  Our objections fell on closed ears, and nobody had the resources or political will to take legal actions to stop the IWPA from pushing ahead and ensuring that any future flood waters coming from the Umfolozi River would take vast quantities of troublesome silt directly into the low energy tidal flow loops of the St. Lucia estuarine lake systems.

This troublesome silt is now sitting in the primary  estuarine basin and also in the early lake inlet zones at the northern edges of the St. Lucia Narrows

 (GPS ref -28.260434, 32.446320)  

Link to map  https://goo.gl/maps/YKJNF3KXDubqDbQEA   

These very serious and nasty silt deposits  now interfere with fish migratory routes as well as migratory routes of crabs, prawns and other creatures.  question now becomes how will we be able to repair these areas so that these migratory paths become functional.  

If these migratory routes remain dysfunctional for an extended time period, fish stocks along our entire coastline will start to decline.  the IWPA published a video that states that the St. Lucia lake and estuary system covers more than 60 percent of the fish breeding and fish nursery zones 

The mouth of the St. Lucia estuary system is currently(November 2022) open, but the water flow issues are not what they should be. The silt within these systems has ensured that there is no marine water retention in the system, 

marine water retention is needed for marine species that use the system as nursery grounds to actually survive between tidal cycles, from one high tide to the next. We do need some marine scientists to come and do a little research, then come back and tell us the true story, and not just pure speculation. 

Public participation process meetings are essential, but we have not seen any in recent years. the new planning season has been started, as the IWPA has a draft plan listed here  https://sahris.sahra.org.za/sites/default/files/additionaldocs/iSimangaliso%20Integrated%20Management%20Plan.pdf 

Please take a #peepsee then let us know how you think we should react.

your comments and views will be appreciated

THanx for reading here, looking forward to your comments.

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fiah team 

Silt issues within the within the St. Lucia esturine systems

The 4u2fish campaign needs your help, especially your moral support and associated open discussions about environmental rights, duties and obligations of yourself and those around your neighborhoods.

I know we often talk of Environmental rights, but who talks about your Environmental obligations ?

Failure of our local municipalities to understand our Environmental obligations means that this important interpretation of environmental law is not discussed and considered during spatial development public participation processes meetings at local municipality levels.

Now the IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority falls into three of the four local municipalities of the Umkhanyakude district Municipality, which makes matters complicated, but the fact that the IWPA has influenced parliamentary stake holders into declaring a special District Management Area or DMA  complicates matters even more.

The question  to be asked here is "was this legal manoeuvre to separate the IWPA MANAGEMENT ISSUES from the influence of local municipality IDP processes, coz from our perspective, there was no public participation process involved in the preparation and legislative procedure involved in getting these issues through the parliamentary voting process, before being passed as laws.

To date, we are not aware of a single challenge to these rather nasty actions, which have given the IWPA much more powers than They should be allowed. Currently, the IWPA side steps many legally challenging issues, because they do not include local municipality zoning in their planning and management STRATEGIES.

The IWPA also uses these same arguments to side step district Municipality and KZN provincial planning structures. The IWPA does not even report to any national government department, but reports directly to the office of the state president. This makes planning a very difficult activity within the fishing industries associated with our natural renewable resources of Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary  systems. The St. Lucia estuary system accounts for more than 60 percent of the available estuarine fish breeding and nursery areas in South Africa. 

The IWPA actually published a video discussing these issues, where they inform the world that there has been a rather serious biodiversity collapse, where the prawn fishing industry collapsed following the closure of the St. lucia nad Umfolozi estuarine mouths.

WE do need to remember that there was a two mouth policy, and what was the reason for the two mouth policy. When one investigates this just a little, one soon discovers that the two mouth policy was all about the sediment that came along with the Umfolozi Flood waters., and ensuring that the silt from the Umfolozi flood waters was drastically minimized due to the slowing down of the Umfolozi Flood waters in the Umfolozi Flood plains prior to this flood waters entering the greater St. Lucia estuarine lake systems in the northern sections of the greater St. Lucia wetlands park. 

IN the post 2017 time frame, this silt reduction was eliminated because the Umfolozi flood waters then entered the northern sections of the St. Lucia lake systems at full flow speed, carrying vast volumes of silt into the northern sections of the St. Lucia lake systems.  The question thus becomes where did this nasty silt drop out of the Umfolozi River Flood waters. 

River silt is a strange issue, as the silt does not drop out evenly across the surface area that is flooded by the silt laden flood waters. The silt drops out at the specific location where the water slows down, and only the super fine silt moves off into the vast open spaces of the rest of the system.

This can be very confusing if one does not take just a little time to understand the issues at playhere.

Fast moving river flood waters can carry plenty of heavy silt, but slow movingving flood waters can not carry heavy silt. The color of the water is not the issue, but the volume of heavy silt deposited at the points where the water slows down is the real issue. The flood waters from the Umfolozi river flow rather fast up the St. Lucia narrows and slow down when the flood waters meet the still lake waters and then spread out and come to a very slow moving wide open space. This means that the Umfolozi Flood waters drop the heavy silt in a rather small space, and continue to drop out  heavy silt in the same location as the lake level slowly raises. 

The heavy silt thus produces / manufactures a silt wall where the Umfolozi Flood waters enter the lake system and fan out from a fast moving narrow stream into  a very wide area where the flood water  move rather sluggishly.. This continues for the duration of the incoming flood waters, for 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours a day.  

This silt wall has now become a nasty problem, coz the lake system now suffers an energy deficiency and can not move the rather large silt wall that remains in the system until it is mechanically removed (Dredged out / mechanically removed) this silt wall now prevents the lake system from interacting with the tidal influence of the ocean.  No access for the marine species that breed within the lake systems is now impossible.  Access to the ocean for prawns to migrate to their ocean based breeding grounds is also now an issue. This means that the juvenile recruitment of many different creatures is now a non issue.  This means that these species that rely on the access routes to their breeding grounds have declined in numbers to such an extent that the food chain is now non functional and in dire need of human help.See this video 

There are many qualified scientists who are truly ignorant and say that nature must take its course.  These very stupid  sceintists now need to please explain how the environment must restore or repair the serious damage caused by human interventions carried out when the GEF 2017 project connected the flood waters of the Umfolozi river to the lake system, deliberately and with criminal intent bypassing the natural filter systems in place prior to their interventions.

These same ignorant and stupid sceintific experts need tp please explain how they measured the silt volumes in the Umfolozi River flood waters, and why they ignored our requests to include this essential information in their estuary management plans.  

The 4u2fish campaign needs your help to put political pressure on the IWPA to address these environmental concerns. 

Sand dunes and the St. Lucia estuary issues

 Greetings to all who read here. It is Thursday  20 October 2022 and WE need to do something soon, coz the problems are growing faster than the solutions are being discussed, never mind the implementation issues.

The April / May 2022 floods have caused many different problems, and in my mind, the biggest problem for our fish breeding grounds is the vast quantiles of silt that has dropped out at the most inconvenient places for nature to have any chances of restoring any sanity to the now dysfunctional natural breeding grounds for many marine fish species and other creatures like crabs, jellyfish and prawns that used to flourish in our local ecosystems within the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park.

One needs to remember that the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth was closed when these flood waters struck our waterways in May 2022. These many different waterways, in the area each have distinct and separate issues. some of these water ways  that matter more are 

1. The Northern sections of Lake ST. Lucia
2. the tidal interaction channels between The Northern sections of the lake and the Ocean itself
3. Hells gate and the Nibela peninsula / False bay lake zones
4. Makataan swamp forest and adjacent fresh water input zones
5. The immediate Mouth Zone where the Umfolozi and Mzunduze river interact with the Tidal interaction channels as in 2 above
6. The tidal zone at the mouth and tidal interactions of
7. (a) the Umfolozi river
8. (b) the Umzunduse tributary of the Umfolozi river
9. the Umfolozi flats and associated banana farms on both the North banks and South Banks of the Umfolozi River
10. the Monzi sugar lands and associated flat lands
11. The Umfolozi flats
12. the Sokhulu sand flats
13. the Mapelane  swamp lands
14. Teza Pan and associated waterways

another issue to consider is that the lake water levels were already a bit high when the big rains in May 2022 struck our waterways with a rather intense speed. The speed that the Umfolozi River flood waters entered the northern sections of the lake needs to be properly understood, as does the vast quantity of river-born silt that dropped out at the zone where the Narrows opens up and fans out into the Sothern edge of lake St. Lucia. 

 

This caused a rather large un-natural blockage to grow into a nasty problem. coz when the mouth opened due to rising flood waters, the water within the Northern sections of the lake was trapped, and did not have the energy to remove the waterborne sediments that had accumulated in the system, at the spot where the water slowed down,  due to the GEF 2017 project, which connected the Umfolozi river directly to the St. Lucia lake systems, bypassing the natural silt traps of the Umfolozi flats, the Monzi flood plains and the other lower areas near Sokhulu and Mapelane. this silt dropuut was hectic.

So the vast amounts of silt that came along for the ride in the April / May Floods and dropped out at various problem zones needs to be clearly understood, as this silt is now problematic in many different areas. At the Mouth of the ST. Lucia estuary, the reeds, sedges, grasses and other riverine plants have enjoyed this silt and are now doing very well. These are all growing in the mud flats, which should be sand flats,  These well-established plants are now acting as a final sand arrestor, at the western end of the fast-growing sand dunes that are getting very problematic. this wind born sediment is joining the water-born sediment and forming a distinct top layer which is fast turning the mud layer into very hard bentonite-enriched  sand sludge that will soon be setting into very nasty river-born sediment and other  stuff.  

What would this be called? we need some scientists to come and explain more about this  cement-like stuff to the public so that the public can start to use this information to force the issues and ensure that we get government interventions and make sure that our fish breeding grounds are repaired and made functional before too much damage is caused, coz with ZERO juvenile recruitment there will soon be no fish. If our fish breeding grounds are not functional there will be no juvenile recruitment.

So please help the 4u2fish campaign to put pressure on the relevant political structures so that the problem can be addressed as soon as possible. read more at our FB Pages facebook.com/4u2fish

October 2022 udate to a 2018 post disussing marine water flow

 It is now October 2022 and the mouth of the St. Lucia estuary is currently open.  but ... there are now even bigger problems, coz the silt that came along for the ride, during the April / May 2022 floods, and stayed behind in problem zones,  is preventing the flood waters from returning to the ocean.

I am not an artist, and can't find somebody to draw a few pics to explain the issue, so let us test my storytelling skills.. and find out if I can tell the rather nasty story around the silt issue in just words...with no images...

Well, the story is all about the SILT and debris that come along with flood waters.

So when water is flowing fast it can pick up stuff and carry that stuff along for the ride. what stuff are we talking about here? Well, any small loose stuff like topsoil, leaves, dead grass, plastic bags, and any wind-blown items. this all ends up in the river.

So not all this stuff ends up at the bottom end of the water flow pattern, which is the ocean. Sea water evaporates, it rains, the rainwater flows back into the sea then the cycle continues. but the debris and stuff carried to the lower end of the water flow cycle is the issue.  this stuff can not be evaporated by the sun, so it just accumulates and accumulates more.   Now the 2017 GEF-funded project which connected the Umfolozi River System to the Northern sections of Lake St. Lucia needs to be very carefully added to the narrative here, coz this nasty crime against the environment was supported with great vigour and pleasure by the IWPA, which had alternative agendas that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority needed to address. 

Removing the natural renewable resources from the local environment would suit these guys (IWPA) very nicely, coz that would bankrupt the local folks, and thus prevent them from acquiring legal assistance during their expulsions from the area,  why? coz t is a world heritage site, so the locals must pack up their bags and leave.   The locals however showed the IWPA a very big toffee, and basically stayed put, and are now indigent and living in a space that should be abounding with nature, but is a rather nasty-looking space where drought has taken its toll, and the environment is in a very bad way.

The fact that the elites operating high-end International tourism businesses from the town / village of St Lucia, see these local folks as "POACHERS" and undesirable is due to the extremely successful public perception management strategies applied by one ANDREW ZALOUMIS as CEO of the IWPA, following instructions from the national tourism bodies... Remember the Transfrontier park Any way let's focus on the mud stuff.

If water is carrying stuff (SILT) along coz it has some speed, where will this stuff all end up? 

Well, that answer is simple... wherever the water slows down... the slower it gets the more stuff drops out.  Now the issue suddenly becomes where does the water slow down enough to cause dropouts to start happening?

Now the area from the N2  (National Road) to the ocean is rather far, about 25 KM, and with some twists and turns in the Umfolozi River pathway, that ends up at around 30 Km. Within this space, the Umfolozi river floods its banks and starts filling up the Monzi flood plains, the Umfolozi flats, the Sokhulu swamps and Mapelane bogs, but still flows rather strong in the true flow zone. 

the water flowing in the true flow zone of the Umfolozi River soes not actually slow down, and rushes along carrying its silt load all the way, back inalnd through the St. Lucia narrows, coz of the 2017 GEF Project.

This means that the water in the true flow zone is still carrying gross volumes of silt.  During the last few years in the post-2017 GEF project years, this has repeated many times over, with enormous volumes of silt being deposited at the Northern edges of the narrows, where the St. Lucia Narrows join the ST. Lucia lake system, at the lake's most southern tip. 

So the Northern end of the narrows (Fast flowing water) meets the Southern edge of the lake,(Standing water)  and then stops flowing instantly.  This causes the most horrid scenario where the silt just builds a big wall of heavy silt dropouts.  

During flood times the water arrives at this build point shown in the Google Map Below, and this is serious.  coz why? coz the silt carrying water continues to arrive   .. and continues for days, last time in the April / May 2022 floods the water carried on coming for more than 6 weeks... think about that for six weeks !!!!!!

60 seconds in a minute... then

60 minutes in an hour... then

24 hours a day... 

then 7 days a week ...   

for six weeks?   6 whole weeks..?

All this water was carrying silt, and the silt all dropped out where the water slowed down...  the wall that is still there now is a true nasty problem, and we as human beings need to do something, coz we as human beings caused that silt to rnd up in that space. If nature was left to take its own course, this would never have happened. The mouth would have opened, and the silt would have been deposited in the ocean. The ocean is a high-energy zone, and the silt would have been distributed over a very large area, causing minimal negative impacts. The opposite is now true, where the silt has accumulated in a very small area, and now acts as a dam wall keeping the Umfolozi Flood waters within the Lake St. Lucia system.

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. 

The 4u2fish campaign needs your support.

 The management team at the 4u2fish campaign needs help. We need folks  to read our blog posts, face book posts and view our  other social media efforts

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.