Saving lake is against the law
A George regional magistrate is to give a ruling on Monday, August 29, in the matter of SANParks against Sedgefield civil engineer, Richard Batson.
Batson, who had a narrow furrow dug in the Swartvlei Lake, is defending criminal charges brought against him under the National Water Act, for “unlawful water use by impeding or diverting the flow of water in a water course”. Four other subsidiary charges fall under the NEMA and the Protected Areas Act and include commencing with a listed activity without environmental authorisation.
During his hearing at the end of last month, Batson told Magistrate Fourie that he dug the narrow channel in order to encourage a better tidal flow, as the railway bridge continues to form a formidable barrier which inhibits the natural flow of water. During tidal movements, sediment is deposited before and behind the bridge which continues to form a bottleneck in South Africa’s biggest estuary.
The Friends of the Swartvlei, a small group of environmentalist (all civil engineers), had also opened up the areas in between the pillars under the railway bridge. They undertook the back-breaking work themselves by picking up the rocks, which were obstructing the tidal-flow and stacked them up against the bridge-pillars. SANParks had not objected against the rock stacking, but were apparently vehemently against the furrow being dug on the line of a washout of the embankment which occurred during the November, 2007 floods.
Batson explained; “These actions resulted in a significant increase in the tidal flow throughout the estuary which kept the mouth on the estuary open for more than 26 months and represented the first stage in returning the system to its natural condition, before the railway across the estuary was constituted in 1928.”
But this, according to SANParks, was against the law.
Batson said he has been living next to the lake for the past 15 years and had observed the deterioration in the lake, as it silts up gradually. The N2-bridge and the Railway bridge, both man-made barriers, aggravate the mud sedimentation deposits which form layers. As a result the water surface gets smaller and smaller. The Friends of the Swartvlei had not wished to watch this process with folded arms and had decided to do something about it and had therefore tackled the biggest man-made barrier.
Source: The Knysna-Plett Herald