Coastal management programme to uplift the Mandeni area

19th July 2013

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

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Consulting, engineering and environmental services provider Royal HaskoningDHV will present the draft five-year coastal management programme (CMP), developed on behalf of the Mandeni municipality, which is aimed at transforming the Mandeni coastal zone to attract tourists and investment while maintaining the balance between development and conservation, for public comment this month.

Thereafter, it will be presented for consideration to the Mandeni local municipality and the iLembe district municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), says Royal HaskoningDHV leading professional Tandi Breetzke.

The integrated and coordinated CMP is a requirement of the country’s Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Act.

To date, Royal Haskoning- DHV has completed the scoping phase of the CMP, which includes an overview of the coastal area; including legislation; the policies and direction provided in context of management; as well as opportunities and constraints.

The draft CMP highlights seven priority areas with objectives, goals and identified strategies.

The first priority area is cooperative governance. This highlights challenges such as the lack of institutional capacity and resources, limited funding and access to funding for infrastructure upgrades, a lack of marketing to promote Mandeni as a tourism destination and a lack of partici- pation by the tribal authority and the Ingonyama Trust, which manages tribal land on behalf of communities in KZN.

“The aim of this particular priority area is to promote stakeholder engagement and participation, improve coastal management capacity as well as the coordination of the implementation of the CMP. To achieve this, we have proposed goals and strategies such as meeting with and coope- rating with the iLembe District Coastal Committee and estab- lishing a Mandeni Coastal Committee, establishing a link to existing iLembe marketing campaigns, as well as accessing available funds and resources to implement the programme,” Breetzke states.

The second priority area will focus on planning and development, which is made difficult owing to inadequate electricity, water, transport, sanitation and housing infrastructure, as a result of a basic services backlog.

The lack of and poor quality of existing swimming beaches is also a concern, as the swimming conditions are not safe and there are limited public facilities, including parking, at existing and proposed swimming beaches.

Breetzke says there is a need to learn from the mistakes made in other coastal areas and to maintain a natural buffer, prevent ribbon development and encourage nodal development. She adds that, the challenge is to attract nonintrusive and low-impact development while still maintaining the existing unspoilt views and natural buffers.

The strategies to achieve the goals of coastal planning, infrastructure, economic development and poverty alleviation include the development of a coastal by-law and a coastal planning scheme, supporting appropriate coastal developments, creating additional beach recreational nodes, identifying potential tidal pools, promoting long-term economic development activities – including tourism recreational activities – and the identification of sustainable livelihood projects to diversify opportunities for poor coastal communities.

Climate change and dynamic coastal processes comprise the third priority area, with the key aim of promoting resilient coastal settlements and sustainable responses to environmental hazards.

The maintenance of a natural buffer is, therefore, important, as dynamic coastal processes, the impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels, increased coastal erosion and sand-replenishment malfunction, as well as an increase in storm activity and greater geotechnical instability of dune systems, significantly impact on the coast.

Tools proposed for responding to dynamic coastal processes include a climate change preparedness strategy and risk assessment, determination of accurate sea-level rise projections, input into the proposed coastal set-back/management line, according to ICM Act requirements and the identification and protection of natural buffers provided by coastal vegetation.

Another priority area is the eradication of pollution in the coastal environment. The draft CMP requires the reduction of pollution caused by upstream industrial and agricultural practices, as well as localised pollution and littering.

The draft CMP supports beach clean-ups, future public–private partnerships and an assessment of the waste discharge into Mandeni’s coastal environment, as well as recommendations and plans of action for the management thereof.

New developments must ensure that the reduction of pollution impacts coincide with the development of stormwater management strategies, Breetzke notes.

The conservation and proper management of estuaries, according to the ICM Act is another CMP priority area. This can be dealt with through the development of estuary management plans and the support of estuarine monitoring programmes.

Meanwhile, another challenge identified by Royal HaskoningDHV is access to the Mandeni coastal area.

The provision of coastal access, as well as accessibility to the coastal zone, speci- fically access to the Tugela river’s south bank and protected areas, is problematic as a result of historically granted land rights, which need to be investigated and resolved where necessary, and physical issues relating to crossing the Nyoni estuary.

Coastal access land needs to be designated according to the ICM Act but existing and future access points must also be maintained. Further, coastal public property must be designated and protected.

The final priority area of the CMP is natural resource management, which aims to acknowledge the role of ecosystems in sustaining livelihoods and promoting sustainable use, both extractive and non-extractive.

The challenges include the ecological degradation of natural resources, the resultant biodiversity loss and the degradation of natural vegetation, owing to the presence of alien invasive species, specifically in protected and undeveloped areas.

The extensive and uncontrolled harvesting of marine stocks through the offshore trawling of the Tugela river banks as well as cattle on the beach, are other significant issues that were raised by stakeholders.

Effective natural resource management, the protection of the coastal corridor and links to an open-space system are needed, along with the maintenance of protected coastal areas, the promotion of a designated marine protected area and the rehabilitation of degraded areas.

“The need for sustainable development must be balanced with the need to retain the current unspoilt nature of the Mandeni coastal area,” Breetzke concludes.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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