St Francis Beach Brings Christmas Cheer

Holiday makers enjoyed a wider more stable beach in St Francis Bay this year. Although it is far too early to state that the problems with our beach are behind us, things are certainly looking up and holiday makers made the most of the improved amenity. The access to the beach was also improved thanks to the efforts of a number of local donors and the Municipality. Cricket games, soccer and touch rugby games took place all along the seashore.

All has not been plain sailing however as a huge winter storm removed over 70,000 cubic meters from the beach over a matter of days. The combination of a high Spring tide and ten meter high waves out at sea caused this destruction. Had the beach not built up a buffer of sand the beach would have been in a very “sorry state”. The reality is that the power of the elements makes all our efforts seem so vulnerable and fluctuations in sand volume can occur rapidly. Despite setbacks there are a number of positives to date.

In past years the St Francis Bay beach had lost between 40 and 60 thousand cubic meters of sand a year. The situation got so bad that home owners along the beach feared for their homes and were forced to build rock revetments in order to protect their investments. Over the last thirteen months, since the Danish PEM system was installed, residents have seen a gain of just over 9 thousand cubic meters of sand. This may not seem much but it amounts to a sizable 22% gain in sand volume! Will this continue? Who knows but we will take this improved situation any day.

On top of this over a period of just over two months, the gap in the dune that protects the canal system from the sea has also been successfully restored. This was done by simply using windbreaks as recommended by the Danes and approved by the Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs. A big “thank you” to all those residents and holiday makers that helped us in our dune restoration project. The protection of our spit is so important to our village and home owners along the canals.

Where to from here? There are a number of options namely to continue as we are doing at present and rely on the PEM system to slowly build back our beach or one can think of supplementing the current program with re-nourishment. This is unfortunately very costly and this is not being recommended by the Danes who are happy with the progress to date.

Reassuringly the PEM system is proving to be very successful in other parts of the world as well. The most recent example is that of beaches that were struck by Hurricane Ida in Cancun Mexico. Beaches protected by the PEM system retained their width while a neighboring beaches’ width shrunk by more than half.

In February 2010 the Municipality will be required to renew its contract with SIC. The Danes have upheld their part of the contact, namely to stabilize the beach. It is now up to the Kouga Municipality to ensure that one of our most precious assets gets protected and that St Francis Bay remains a favorite tourist destination.