International Earth Day - Kommetjie Beach and Wildevoelvlei River

[Liesel James]

Sewage Plant Imhoff_Image.jpg

Dear Little Green Friends,

It has been a just over a year since we have founded Little Green Fingers and we have had numerous clean-ups in the valley as well as cleaning up an informal settlement in Kwazulu Natal last year. We have had a few tree planting events locally: in honor of the whales who beached themselves and also for International Clean up week in September. Together with Waldorf yr 1 class we reached out to Marine Primary helping planting sponsored trees outside their school.

At the beginning of the year we had a 2 day organic workshop for children which was a lot of fun and I invite you to have a look at the pictures on the website.

Thank you for your on going support thus far! Every event was special and the feedback has been great from parents and child alike.

Last year at one of the clean up events which was organised by Imhoff Waldorf School, at the mouth of Wilde Voel Vlei which is on Kommetjie beach, we picked up a pile of dead crabs. I noticed the river was smelly and had a rich green algea growing in it. There is a sign saying we should not drink the water but the result of so many crabs dead meant this water was really bad.

I started investigating this matter and I was initially told that the river comes from Ocean View. I contacted a specialist in phytoremediation and we followed the river and discovered that it is actually coming from the Sewage plant behind Compas Bakery. Please see attached photo.

Investigating even further, came accross articles (some further down) that this has been an issue for many years investigated by KEAG, NEAG, WESSA, SANPARKS and more organizations and individuals. This sewage plant next to Compos Bakery pushes daily inflow of waste water (black water - just the solids stay behind) into the ponds. 3 mil liters according to the CSIR. There is no way that much water can evaporate daily in those ponds. The result is the overflow into the estuaries and into our ocean.

Although this is an illegal situation, fighting with the city won’t achieve anything.

There are solutions to all of this and we are currently putting a proposal together and would like to approach a company that has funding for environmental projects. Together we will approach the city and propose an experiment to clean the ponds with Phytoremediation methods.

My reason for writing to you today is to invite you to our next clean up event on the 25th of April. This is in acknowledgement for the International Earth Day on the 22nd of April but also to create awareness in our local community about the situation as many whom I have spoken to had no idea.

Our program is as follows:

09:00 Registration at Free Range Cafe - Imhoff's Farm Village

09:15 Hand out bags and safety talk

09:30 Clean Up surrounding areas.

10:45 Meet back at Free Range Cafe - refreshments sponsored for

children

11:11 The state of our ecology - Kevin James

Talk on Wilde Voel Vlei Sewage - Liesel James

Dr Chabad de Jaeger – a Quantum biophysicist/Naturopath/Homeopath

who has knowledge of WATER, in humans and animals blood, soils,

plants and the environment and will be presenting scientific evidence

on WATER.

11:45 Fun

12:00 Event Ends

The success of making things right in this dirty and greedy world is for communities to stand together. We cannot rely on the governments of the world to do so.

This is a serious issue which is important for our local community to become aware of. Wouldn't it be amazing if we can fix an environmental problem in our community. It is worth the shot.

Starting with a clean up and an awareness campaign is step 1!

We look forward to see you there.

More info below on Wilde Voel Vlei:

Wildevoëlvlei—working for a healthy

environment

One of the early Working for Wetlands

projects was initiated in response to an

outbreak of toxic blue-green algae in the

Wildevoëlvlei Wetlands at Noordhoek.

For some reason, the pond weed that

normally grows in these wetlands died

off and was no longer able to remove

nutrients from the water. Toxic blue-green

algae bloomed in response to the rise in

nutrient levels, turning the wetland into a

health hazard for people and animals.

Poverty relief funding from the Department

of Environmental Affairs and Tourism

enabled the City of Cape Town, SANParks,

the Ukuvuka Campaign and

WESSA Western Cape to undertake a

massive project to clear invasive alien

plants and make a start with the restoration

of the wetlands. To address the bluegreen

algae problem, Working for Wetlands

appointed teams to build “mesocosms”,

floating corral-like structures

in which they could start poisoning the

algae and reintroducing indigenous pond

weed. Workers also removed swathes of

Phragmites reeds and planted a variety

of indigenous wetland plants to try to

re-establish a more diverse plant community.

CH3APTER Managing watersheds wisely

Watersheds or catchment areas provide land use planners and decision-makers with a

very useful ecological unit within which to manage land and water use, fire, invasive alien

species, pollution and estuary function in an integrated manner. The C.A.P.E. Programme

identified watershed management as a key component of the Strategy and supports efforts to

integrate the diverse aspects of catchment management. For instance, C.A.P.E. Partners are

actively involved in the establishment of Catchment Management Agencies, which are due to

start taking over responsibility for the management of the five major catchment areas in the

Cape Floristic Region.

With the recognition that large stands of woody alien plants significantly reduce the

amount of water reaching streams, increase the severity of veld fires and pose a threat to

biodiversity, the government stepped in and created poverty relief programmes such as

Working for Water and Working on Fire. These programmes provide tens of thousands of

Unemployed people across the region with temporary employment and skills development

opportunities. Volunteer groups have also made a significant contribution to the eradication

of invasive alien plants on both private and public land. This chapter acknowledges the

huge contribution the “fynmense” of the Cape have made in addressing this huge and multifaceted

threat.

Working for Wetlands team members made a big impression at the C.A.P.E. Partners’ Conference 2006.

CHAPTER

SANBI Biodiversity Series 4 (2006)

people making biodiversity work 105

About 600 people from Masiphumelele township benefited from short-term employment and skills development opportunities. The Noordhoek Valley Training Centre, a campus of False Bay

College, played a key role in supporting the skills development aspects of this project, from sewing skills needed to construct the mesocosms, to basket-making with the cut reeds. FebDev provided business

skills development for emerging contractors. A number of these contractors have since started their own businesses and Working for Wetlands project manager Mandy Noffke continues to involve them where possible in a range of different

jobs so that they can continue to learn different skills, from alien clearing and plant propagation to planting and maintenance of rehabilitation sites.

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Kommetjie

Residents' & Ratepayers' Association.

Umbutho Wabahlali Nabahlauli Beerhafu Zika Msipala

Inwoners & Belastingbetalersvereniging

P O Box/Posbus 48342 Kommetjie 7976

O6 May 2005

ASPECTS OF NATIONAL AND PROVINCIAL LEGISLATION TO

CONSIDER WITH RESPECT TO THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN’S

PROPOSED INTEGRATED ZONING SCHEME

3 De Waal J, Currie I, Erasmus G, The bill of rights handbook – second edition, Juta & Co (1999) p257

Environment

24. Everyone has the right

a. to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and

b. to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future

generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that

i. prevent pollution and ecological degradation;

ii. promote conservation; and

iii. secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural

resources while promoting justifiable economic and social

development.

Subsection (a) contains an individual, justiciable right to a healthy environment.

Conduct of the state or a private individual or an institution violating that right may be

challenged. Subsection (b) imposes a duty on the state to take steps to protect the

environment.

The ‘environment’ has been interpreted to include not just the natural environment but

man-made objects and the cultural and historic heritage as well4. A similar

interpretation is also found in the National Environmental Management Act 1998

(NEMA) which defines the environment as “the surroundings in which humans exist

and that are made up of” the natural and biological environment as well as “the

physical, chemical, aesthetic and cultural properties thereof that influences human

health and well-being”(NEMA 1(xi)).

24(b) places a duty on the City of Cape Town to protect the environment through

administrative and legislative means. Officials have verbally and in some of the text

made reference to complying with environmental legislative requirements etc.

however unfortunately in many of their proposals they appear to be paying lip service

only to these requirements.

‘Ecologically sustainable development’ in 24 b(iii).implies that development must be

restricted by the ecological carrying capacity of each area. In many areas this is being

ignored and the IZS will only worsen the situation. For example in our area parts of

the Noordhoek wetland have collapsed ecologically and expert reports have

recommended that further development in the Noordhoek/Fish Hoek Valley be

restricted. Similarly the Wildevoëlvlei waste water treatment works(WWWTW) is

running at 84% capacity by nutrient loading with the remaining capacity already

‘taken’ by approved and soon to be approved developments. There is no ‘extra’

sewerage treatment capacity to cater for all the development proposals for the

Noordhoek Valley currently with the City let alone densification. There is already a

problem with the phosphate discharge levels from the WWWTW and once the

capacity of the plant is reached the quality of the discharge will rapidly worsen with

disastrous ecological results.

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www2.dwaf.gov.za/dwaf/download.asp?f=4239___Final

www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/research/.../science2000.pdf

blessings,
Liesel James

Mb: [phone]