THE Zululand coast took another battering over the weekend, with tidal surges biting huge chunks out of beaches and dune barriers.
At Alkantstrand, the sandy beach has all but disappeared, having been covered by rocks and debris after gale-lashed seas smashed the shoreline from Friday to Sunday.
A wall of sandbags laid three years ago against rising sea levels was destroyed.
Bathing and surfing have been banned until further notice after shark nets were washed away, while a harbour buoy ended up on the rocks next to the helicopter base.
The weekend also saw plenty of foolishness on the part of local drivers who parked on the short pier at Newark Beach as gigantic waves drenched their vehicles with salt water, as well as youths who tempted fate ducking under waves that pounded the dolosse at Alkantstrand.
But the over-riding concern remains with global warming the advancing ocean’s repeated onslaught on the ever-narrowing coastal dune barrier north of the city’s main beach.
The Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs last year published its Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) fact sheet in which it issued a warning that ‘urgent attention must be given to the receding coastline north of the Port of Richards Bay’.
According to the CVI, 42% of the 101km of uThungulu coastline is at low risk, 53% at moderate risk and 4% at high risk.
The width of the coastal dunes separating the sea from low-lying areas such as Meerensee is decreasing every year and is now at ‘serious danger’ level as the dune defence that protects the coastline disintegrates at an alarming rate.
While Alkantstrand beach needs an urgent replenishment of tons of dredge spoil, this will do little to stop the long-term effects of coastal erosion and physical protection barriers might be required.
Sea encroachment also impacts on setback lines for development.
What concerns me the most is that we were stopped to do beach driving when we want to fish, but our beaches has deteriorated by foul weather and our coastline been stripped of there natural sources due to no visibility of people fishing or visiting the isolated areas any more. If you do visit now you are so far away from your vehicle that by the time you get there it has been damaged and stripped or you get mugged and robbed. Best of all is the people making these laws never visit these areas and that leave a big question mark????????????????????????
The CSIR have warned us some years ago! Subsequent studies have recommended action. At various forums I have urged, no,appealed to uMhlathuze to start implementing those recommendations, and at the uThungulu Coastal Working Group urged action.
What do I know?
I would rather not comment on the comment about Beach Driving! Ask our dearest Municipality and the same uThungulu Coastal Working Group. And hold those in positions of authority responsible, because they are part of the problem, and NOT part of the solution!