The IWPA needs to please explain their esturay managment strategies

Please sign our petition

The St. Lucia Estuary is currently ( SEPTEMBER 2017 ) a disaster zone, and the ecological biodiversity within the Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia Estuary system has collapsed. The Estuary Management  plan for the St. Lucia Estuary as is mandated in the Integrated Coastal Management Act is not in the public zone, and we need to know why. 

Please sign our petition so we can have a mandate from the public to take some actions at the local Municipality level to have the issues of bad management within the IWPA addressed.

 

The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority has not held proper public participation process meetings within the Mtubatuba Municipality, and the tourism associated with the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems  has not been included in the economic development forums of the Mtubatuba municipality Local Municipality IDP as id mandated in many different laws and legislations associated with the management of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park such as the 4x4 ban  and the Integrated Coastal Management Act.

to download this letter as a PDF file click here

Start quote of letter to iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority

Old School Birding Club <marketing.osbc@info4u.co.za>

water flow issues within the lake St. Lucia system. 1 message

Old School Birding Club <marketing.osbc@info4u.co.za>

Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 4:26 PM To: info@isimangaliso.com

OPEN LETTER addressed to info@isimangaliso.com and published to 4x4ban.blogspot.com then shared on social media.

info@isimangaliso.com is the registered email address for the IWPA --- iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority see their web site at www.isimangaliso.com

attention administrative staff at the IWPA

Hi

Many thanx for your post on FB https://web.facebook.com/iSimangalisoWetlandPark/posts/ 896067270542666

I have a few questions but am not sure where or who to ask. Can you link me up with the correct folks ?

I received an email containing a news flash from newsflash@isimangaliso.com on 10 September 2017 (covering the same subject matter) and this seems to be rather confusing info. Either the scientists concerned are trying to fool us as the general public, or they are not qualified to do the job, as the info put forward is rather incorrect in many aspects.

lets start with the issue of the water flow between the ocean and the estuary....

does the estuary system include the lake or is it only the Umfolozi river flood plains ?

I was always under the impression that the estuary system included the water flow in and out of lake St. Lucia. If this is wrong then I apologise. If this is right, your scientists need a slap on the ear, and a rather tight solid one that makes their head spin... so that they can catch a wake up!!!!

From the article it is clear that they talk of the lake, but they deliberately neglect to discuss the water flow patterns which are needed to scour the estuary mouth clean, along with the water volume flow measurements, which keep the lake system from silting up.. they keep discussing the water flow of the Umfolozi river as if this is the only issue at stake. The Umfolozi river only really comes into play when there are drought conditions, and the mouth to the estuary system is closed to prevent the lake from becoming a salt pan, which nature takes care of itself. . Water evaporation is the issue here, as sea water would replace the evaporated water in the lake system, and cause ultra high salt level problems very soon, leaving the lake as a salt pan. This was close to happening, and we had a total fish die out when the lake actually dried up. This has not been declared an international disaster zone, in my mind due to tourism issues, with the IWPA fearing a collapse in tourism due to the bad publicity, and that is a major threat to the future of our tourism associated with lake St. Lucia. If the lake is not part of the tourism picture we will all be in trouble, coz the beaches are already out of the picture due to the 4x4 ban and the subsequent job losses where KZN tourism estimates more than 20 000 job losses in the formal tourism sector as in their occasional paper 20, found here http://www.zulu.org.za/userfiles/1/file/ ForIvestorandResearcher/Research/Occ%20Papers%20PDFs/Occ%20paper%2020% 20Legislation%20on%20the%20Use%20of%204X4's%20on%20Beaches%20.pdf see last paragraph on page 2

Who can I speak to so that I may find out more, and where may I find the IWPA input to the Integrated Estuary Management Plan as is mandated by the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act 2008) chapter 4 sections 33 and 34

From the news flash article it is clear that the scientists in question who put this plan together have an agenda other than the natural rehabilitation of the lake and related estuary system. This needs to be explained at the PPPM (Public Participation Process Meetings) which are mandated in terms of the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) and these issues also need to be included in both the Mtubatuba Local Municipality IDP, and the UMkhanyakude District Municipality IDP, so that these can then be included in the Provincial IDP and then pushed to the central Government IDP. This is essential as the estuary management is not exclusive to the St. Lucia estuary mouth, but also includes the lake systems, the fresh water catchment zones and the subsequent silt flow patterns that are in place due to a host of different reasons including but not limited to

bad agricultural practices in the estuary catchment zones bad land management in state owned lands in the estuary fresh water catchment zones over grazing in rural farm lands, which fall within the estuary fresh water catchm3ent zones bad land management in game parks (Hluhluwe / Umfolozi parks) and poor information flow patterns between the IWPA and the rest of the world, which are stilted and often not inclusive of the bad community impacts associated with the IWPA decisions.

Many of these estuary fresh water catchment zones are not even in the UMkhanyakude District Mu8nicipality, which compounds the need to have this addressed at provincial level through the provincial IDP

see these video discussing the missing silt traps along the Umfolozi River and related problems which your scientists are apparently sidestepping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGMpYyg5wt0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwpQE_tdp-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpDp-s4EZHY

this is a serious matter, and somebody needs to be held accountable.

your help in assisting me to find the required information, and who to speak to , so as to evaluate an amicable way forward will be appreciated.

I used the email address admin@info4u.co.za to request registration with the IWPA integrated management plan, which is the equivalent of the municipal IDP , but for some reason this has not been activated and I do not receive the necessary invites or updates to these management plans. It is my opinion that this email address admin@info4u.co.za has been blacklisted, or labelled as spam by the IWPA administrative system. This is a problem in my mind....

Your advice of what my next step should be, before legal action is taken to force the issue will be appreciated, as I would prefer to solve these problems without legal actions which will be very bad for tourism within the area as a whole. We all rely on tourism, so when this dries up there will be other problems... no tourists in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is not a good thing for anybody. the 4x4 ban has already cost us dearly with KZN TOURISM in their occasional PAPER 20 (see link above)

estimating job losses in excess of 20 000 way back in 2004. Many things have changed since then, but domestic tourism has not recovered, and the IWPA are not doing anything visible to get domestic tourism numbers back up to where they were prior to the 4x4 ban. The recent destruction of perfectly functioning infrastructure which is mainly used by domestic tourists at the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth, and the extreme bad parking planning, along the St. Lucia beach front adds to this perception that the IWPA are anti domestic tourists within the park as a whole. see http://zululandobserver.co.za/ 153111/demolition-works-st-lucias-estuary-beach/ a clear way forward where information flow between the park and concerned citizens is addressed at the mandated public participation process meetings will be truly appreciated. If this is not activated soon, we will be forced to take alternative actions which include legal steps to force the issue. these will give out such a vastly negative vibe that tourism within the area will be drastically affected. We wish to minimise this impact, so please help us to connect with the right folks who can ensure that our concerns are addressed in an open and transparent manner where all will be happy..

looking forward to your response.

FRANKIE2SOCKS

End quote of letter to iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority



Please sign our petition

Please sign our petition so we can have a mandate from the public to take some actions at the local Municipality level to have the issues of bad management within the IWPA addressed.

iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and Public Participation Process Meetings

iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and Public Participation Process Meetings

 The  iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority  ( IWPA ) is in place to manage the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park World Heritage site,  South Africa's first world heritage site, which was renamed as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site after the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean acquired its own world heritage site, and there was confusion over which St. Lucia world heritage site was being discussed. The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is mandated by the WHCA or World Heritage Convention act  to manage the park for us as world citizens.  We as local residents who live adjacent to and  within the park, are supposed to benefit from the tourism  associated with  the park.   Here Section 22 of the

act is very clear, and mandates the IWPA to integrate their management plan with all three tiers of

government through its IMP process. 

tier one = local municipality and district municipality level

tier two = provincial level 

tier three = central government level

to down load your copy of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority's Integrated Management Plan click the link below.

 #IMP = #INTEGRATEDMANAGEMENTPLAN 

Integrated Management Plan for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

This is however not  the case, and the South African or DOMESTIC TOURISM MARKET is currently very under developed and not supported by the IWPA's attitude and plan, Where they want to push international tourism to the exclusion of domestic, regional and local tourism.  

In the past (pre #4X4BAN ) this was the major tourism sector, with

international tourism making up just under 8 % of the total tourism volume.  Today domestic tourism only makes up a small percentage of tourists visiting St. Lucia, with international tourism being the dominant sector, and a very large percentage of these tourists spending less than 4 hours in St. Lucia, only stopping over long enough to do the estuary boat cruise.  The only beneficiaries of this bulk based international sausage machine tourism  is the IWPA and the boat owners.  Many of the INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS  doing these boat trips do not even stop over for coffee in our area.

These issues are not discussed at the #IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) #IMPPPPM (Integrated Management Plan,  Public Participation Process Meetings)  and there is no clear future plan discussed with the communities of #DUKUDUKUSOUTH,  #KHULAVILLAGE and the domestic fishing tourist, showing how and where the local communities surrounding the park, are meant to become involved and do their part so that they may get their share of the income generated by the parks actions, in-actions, events management and community development levies.

This is in gross violation of the original ROD taken to implement 4x4 ban found here where section A clause 6 and section B clause 6 as well as section C clause 6,  discusses a particular reporting issue that needs to be discussed and integrated into the Mtubatuba local municipalities IDP STRUCTURES and other statuary mandated planing process such as  the Estuary Management Plans mandated by the Integrated Coastal Management Act

the WHCA or World Heritage convention act, in section 22  discusses these issues again, where the IWPA is mandated to integrate their development plans with all three tiers of government.   this must how ever be re3ad in conjunction with section 13 of this same act....

I am in the process of finding support to push this issue hard at the upcoming Mtubatuba local Municipality Integrated Development Plan, as is mandated in the MUNICIPAL SYSTEMS ACT and associated legislation. The economic losses associated with the VERY POOR MANAGEMENT by the IWPA need to be accounted for and amendments to plans need to be justified or explained. 

Occasional Paper 20 by KZN Tourism discuuses the economic impacts of the 4x4 ban, showing massive joblosses exceeding 20 000 folks as a knock on impact od the 4x4 ban 

more coming soon  #FRANKIE2SOCKS 

What is the annual cost of implementing the 4x4 ban within the Elepehant Coast ?

Sun rise on the beach

There is so much documentation out there discussing the NEGATIVE ECONOMIC impacts of the 4x4 ban, but it appears that these have not been read by the folks on the ground within the #ISIMANGALISO wetland park and surrounding rural areas of Umkhanyakude district municipality.

firstly there is the OCCASIONAL PAPER 20 BY KZN TOURISM    found here Tourism KwaZulu-Natal's Occasional Research Papers and Ad Hoc Research Projects

then there are a number of documents that were live on this web site http://www.acerafrica.co.za/ which have since been removed or made unavailable to the public. Acer Africa has been the #IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authorities preferred environmental consulting company for a number of years.

The IWPA and associates have many nasty political tricks that they implement, and their PPP or Public Participation Programs are quite well disguised and often hidden from the public through disingenuous tricks and sneaky public perception management strategies.

The current situation where they (IWPA and associates) hold impromptu road blocks and search vehicles for alcoholic beverages when en-route the the local St. Lucia beaches    is also an emotional issue as most South Africans appreciate a beer with their braai.  when this is a problem then the South African Tourists tend to pack up and leave town.  

This attack on our rights to enjoy a beer with a braai is quite a big thing from a tourism perspective, as it chases the lo0cal and domestic tourist out of town.  In the past (pre 2002) this was the main stay of all tourism in St. Lucia with international visitors being very few and far between.  The IWPA decided for us that we should no longer welcome South African folks, but focus on international tourism.

If you take your time and evaluate the OCCASIONAL PAPER 20  (link above) you will soon see that more than 20 000 folks lost their economic opportunities due to the knock on impact of South African Folks no longer feeling welcome within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site.

these economic  losses are huge,  and have never been fully disclosed to the public at any PPPM or Public Participation Process Meeting.held by the IWPA.  WE will soon be challenging this, as the original ROD (Record of Decision)  clearly stipulates that this must happen.  there is supposewd to be an annual review which the minister gets.  this annual review is supposed to (at least in my mind) go through a public participation process in terms of the this ROD but we as the public are left in the dark and fed the biggest pile of hog wash in show and tell meetings that are meant to be Public Participation Process Meetings.

This will soon be a topic of discussion t the Mtubatuba Locla Municipality RDP process, and cause many red faces and lots of  political posturing.  The St. Lucia tourism folks need to brace themselves for the fall out from these political posturing moves and the public reaction that will follow.

WE as the public will soon be requesting an explanation from the new minister of tourism.... asking for the economic costs incurred to enforce the 4x4 Ban including the cost of lost tourism.

this will cause many problems and open the can of worms, spilling them on the dinner table while the guests are eating ....

We can expect some strange reactions from the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and the Minister, as this is a big problem where the local community of the St. Lucia area ;ost more than 20 000 jobs due to government attitude. 

Which way the Mtubatuba Local municipality will react is an open question, as these are all new councilors, with none of those who were in power way back in 2000 still being in power....

Frankie2socks is in town....

There is so much documentation out there discussing the NEGATIVE ECONOMIC impacts of the 4x4 ban, but it appears that these have not been read by the folks on the ground within the #ISIMANGALISO wetland park and surrounding rural areas of Umkhanyakude district municipality.

What to do, and how to get folks on the ground, who have suffered  the losses associated with the absense of the #DOMRSTICTOURIST from the tourism mix within the #ISIMANGALISO wetland Park, involved in putting pressure on the Mtubatuba local municipality to address the issues around domrstic and local tourism.

Currently (May / June  2017 ) there have been very few local tourist (Empamgeni, Ricbay, Durban nrwcastle Vrheid ladysmithaand other nearby areas)  visiting  over weekends and this impact is being felt all thebway from the N2 to within Cape Vidal, Mapelane, Kozi Bay, St. Lucia and Sodwana bay.)


Please sign our  PETITION  requesting a public mandate to address these issues 

A report from the #IWPA discussing tourism numbers

This report needs to be in the public domain, and we as recreational beach users need to ask why these issues were never addressed.

Socio-Economic Effects of the Ban on 4x4
Beach Driving on Residents Neighbouring
the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park

SEED UNIT

REPORT BY

Gordon Fakude, Bronwyn James and Sikhumbuzo Gumede

SR SEED

#4X4BAN   #FRANKIE2SOCKS 

Well I have been inactive here for some time due to the difficulty  in some body to assist financially

That has been partiality  solved, so I am about to pick up the pave and add some really serious pressure onto the topic and take it to the next level.

I have put a GOOGLE PLUS COLLECTION in place and will be adding stuff from all over the place in there.  I would also like your feed back, so please leave comments and ask questions.
https://plus.google.com/collection/s6fzNE

#4X4BAN  #FRANKIE2SOCKS

Issues with the IWPA and their PPP (IWPAPPP)

I was in St. Lucia along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa for a few days from Wednesday 24 September 2014 to Saturday 27 September 2014 to visit the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the Elephant coast to go fishing with a few friends.  We had a great trip, even though there was no water in the town, as there is an issue with the municipal water supply in the area, which is apparently politically motivated, but we were not there long enough to get to the bottom of the issue.

Read about the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority public participation procedure meetings where this issue should be addressed and solved, but has  not been evaluated yet

WE stayed at a spot called BUDGET BACKPACKERS and they had a 5000 liter JOJO tank which they kept full,  so we had water to shower and clean, as well as flush the toilets.  We were rationed with water and the showers were only turned on for one hour in the morning, and one hour in the evening.

During our stay in St. Lucia I met up with many old friends, as I used to live in Mtubatuba which is just 25 Km to the west of St. Lucia, and many of those who I met up with asked why I had abandoned my fight with the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) around the 4x4 ban issue and the many job losses associated with this.  Well this fight caused me many economic losses and cost me an awful lot more than most will realise, and is one of the primary reasons why my business went bankrupt, along with many others who were dependent on the local tourism industry along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa as a knock on impact of the 4x4 ban.

Unfortunately my business was very informal, and I never kept any records, at that time in my life I also had a DRINKING PROBLEM, and spent an awful lot more money in the pubs than I should have.  I used to make and sell a CHILLI PASTE that was marketed under the brand name of FRANCO's HOTSTUFF which was quite well known by locals and domestic tourists within the area.  I would never leave home without a bottle or twenty and sell these during the day and spend the money on beers or what ever took my fancy.

 At one stage I had three women working for me who cleaned chillies, peeled onions and garlic as well as ginger and other ingredients for my chilli paste.  I would spend a few days at home cooking and preparing so that these three women who did all the dirty work could be managed and understand what they needed to do for the next few days, as when I went out DRINKING,  I sometimes stayed away for a week or more, and only popped in to the house to catch a splash (TAKE A SHOWER) get some fresh supplies of chilli paste and a change of clothes.

During those years life within the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park was like living in paradise. The domestic tourists who frequented the Elephant Coast Beaches spent large sums of money on arts and crafts and in the local pubs, restaurants and shops, but this was a short lived issue, as the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) took a very dim view of domestic tourists and started calling them visitors, instead of tourists.  The IWPA also made things increasingly difficult for the domestic tourist to enjoy the wetland park, and supported the closure of all the beaches within the  park in terms of the 4x4 ban, and have done nothing to alleviate the huge loss of jobs and associated revenue caused by the fact that the domestic tourism market had a partial collapse, where KZN tourism estimated that 20 000 or more people lost their economic opportunities within the St. Lucia region. see http://bit.ly/ocasionalpaper20

I left the Mtubatuba area in 2010  and have since then not been that active in the fight to open the Elephant coast beaches to reasonable motor vehicle traffic.  There has been a call by some to get me back into this fight, but i am not willing to step into this fight untill such time as I get a public mandate and proper support from the ARBU (Association of Recreational Beach Users) to this end I have established a petition with the AVAAST community and would appreciate it if you took the time and effort to sign that petition, as well as s hare it with your friends, your customers and your online audience.

AVAAZ Community petitions

Once there are enough signatures on this petition I will truly pick up the fight and put pressure on the IWPA to come clean and do what needs to be done to fix the issues associated with the 4x4 ban.  These are difficult issues that have many thorny aspects that most are afraid of tackling due to the divisions within the public on the 4x4 ban issue which is as a result of the pressures of the mining industry on theSouth African Government to get mining permits for the area between Cape St. Lucia Light House and the Mozambique border at Kozi bay.

This in itself is another controversial issue that needs to be addressed with the idea that the rehabilitation of the land after mining is the primary issue.  The area is already in great ecological distress from poor management of the environment for a number of decades, and  lake St. Lucia is no longer  functioning as the fish breeding grounds that it was once world famous for.  Global warming and changing rainfall pattens as well as the poor agricultural management of the catchment area are issues that need to be mitigated and some form of relief for the past damages as associated with the drought in the late 1950's and the subsequent floods in 1963 which caused major disruptions in the ecological functioning of lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system.  In the late 1960's there was an opportunity to dredge the lake back to its former glory, as the Dutch government had made some offers to assist in this regard, but politics got in the way and this project (DREDGING THE LAKE) was shelved, and forgotten.

These issues are still with us and are now even more vital to fix.  The only way that this will happen is if these issues are addressed at the mandated public participation process meetings, which the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has been mandated to conduct in terms of the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) and its subservient legislation such as the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) and the  ROD that closed all the south African beaches to motor vehicle driving, and many others.  The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has also been mandated by the MSA or Municipal Systems act to have zoning maps and related issues in place, all of which have mandated Public participation process procedures that need to be done during the implementation phases of these laws and associated legislation.

I have personally had great difficulty in discovering when and where these PPPM's (Public Participation Process Meetings)  will be held, and have sent email to the registered email address for he IWPA as per their web site and other official publications and had a ZERO response from them.  these emails are available upon request, and are my leverage when it comes to going to court because the IWPA have failed to implement the law, and the subsequent court cases that will be following in the not to distant future, as I have intentions of pushing these issues untill the courts either force the IWPA to comply, or the IWPA is replaced by a competent organisation that will run the IWP (iSimangaliso Wetland Park) as is deemed appropriate by the WHC (world heritage Council) at the UN (United Nations)

.

Your moral support is required for us to proceed.

During our stay within the St. Lucia region we also learned that there were very serious allegations of further mismanagement of the esturay, when the IWPA dug a trench which linked the Umfolozi River mouth to the Lake St. Lucia Estuary, which has since silted up and closed up further due to wind erosion which has made this trench ineffective and meaningless in terms of water management within the lake St. Lucia water systems.

There will be a follow up post discussing this just as soon as I am able to confirm things and have spoken to the sponsors of this action.

We as the ARBU managment require your input and you may send email to us at arbu@info4u.co.za

If you have any information that may shed extra light on these allegations of mismanagement of the St. Lucia water flow issues, please forward them to us at arbu@info4u.co.za or see our Google plus page 

this is part of the 4u2gofishing project which uses the hashtag #4u2gofishing