Coast KZN

Comment closed on 28 August for public objections to the municipality’s proposed extension to uShaka Pier. Responding to a request for an update, eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the project is still within the environmental phase and meetings with interested and affected parties are scheduled for this month.

The municipality’s proposal to extend uShaka Pier to include an additional 70 well points to pump water to uShaka Marine World was met with criticism when the plans first surfaced in March 2019. At the time Mayisela said the extension to the pier was to improve the water quantity and quality being extracted beneath the pier and supplied to uShaka Marine World. He maintained that the pier needed to be extended for the health of the sea creatures at uShaka Marine World.

No need for pier extension, say activists

In July this year, reports surfaced that the municipality wanted to go ahead with the extension, to the tune of more than R50 million. Vetch’s Beach activist, Johnny Vassilaros, said he and other activists felt there was more to the proposal, suggesting, as reported by Berea Mail in January, that the promenade was built in the incorrect position, and the City wanted to continue pumping sand to shield their investment from being damaged. He said when the pier was built, sufficient well points were placed to provide the aquarium with enough water, adding that the well points were clogged due to the over-pumping of sand onto the beachfront. He said the solution would be to equip the booster pump stations at the beachfront with the correct pumps.

Commenting about her submission, Lisa Guastella, environmental consultant, oceanographic and air quality specialist and member of Coastwatch KZN and the Save Vetch’s Association, said: “The Basic Assessment Report (BAR) fails to address or respond to my initial concern that it is excessive sand pumping and accumulation of sand around the pier that was not adequately planned for in the design that has contributed to the water intakes being inefficient and the desirability to extend the pier.”

“Excessive sand pumping in this area has resulted in an average of 50m of beach being pushed outwards to accommodate the promenade, which latest imagery shows to be in exactly the position of the historical high water mark. The excessive sand pumping has smothered what was once an ecologically productive Vetch’s reef. At its worst, the excessive sand pumping has extended the beach 100m seawards of the historic high water mark,” she said.

Solution needed for sand pumping

In his response, activist, Malcolm Keeping, said there are a number of severe shortcomings in the draft BAR.

“The BAR mentions elevated seabed levels above the well points; however this is due to excessive sand pumping onto Vetch’s beach. How has  uShaka Marine World managed to operate and remain viable over the last five to six years in the face of this alleged inadequate volume? The City wishes to spend R50 million worth of ratepayers’ money on an elaborate pier that only treats the symptom and not the cause of the problem – too much sand pumping,” he said.

Keeping questioned why the push for the pier extension has come so hot on the heels of the promenade completion.

“Has the City only just realised that the promenade will be at risk from high seas because it was built so close to, or on, the historical high water mark and that they will need to embark on a continuous campaign of sand pumping to protect the promenade? The promenade should have been built well back from the high water mark,” he said.

Vassilaros said he felt the only reason for the extension was to allow the continued pumping in the area to defend the promenade, while smothering all marine life on Vetch’s Pier, barely 100 metres away. “The BAR seems to sidestep many concerns and has not responded to the alternate plan suggested by me and several other stakeholders, the most obvious of all being ensuring the booster pump stations become functional,” said Vassilaros.

Vassilaros and Alwyn Selby, a project manager who has been involved in major developments in Cape Town, noted the sand which had blown up at the base of the promenade extension recently. The men spoke about this earlier in the year, stating the gardens at the front of the promenade extension were a wasted effort, as dunes along the beachfront up to this point were all around two meters in height, and with the promenade dropping down four meters, dunes would naturally build up to that height along Vetch’s Beach, and would slowly move up to cover the promenade.

“We predicted it when we saw that they planted flat beach instead of sand dunes, There are no dunes because the accommodation underneath is sited too close to the sea and too low, so the water sports clubs would have no sight of the ocean!” said Selby.