Second Phase of Beach Stabilization to Commence

After a delay of almost four months the payment for the next year of the Beach Restoration Project has been agreed by the Municipality. This delay was caused by incorrect information being sent to the Kouga Municipality suggesting that there had been a huge loss of sand from the beach since the Danish system was installed. These allegations have however been refuted by the Municipal surveyor who in a report to the Municipality verified that the Danes have used the correct survey findings in their reports and that their calculations are in fact correct.

The delay occurred in the period where the system made its largest gains last year. Our beach would have benefitted had double the number of pipes been inserted in the beach four months ago. The Danes now plan to do this on the 15th of this month when the next survey will also be done. We are expecting a good survey result despite the high winds that are predicted this weekend, as there is currently a large buildup of sand along our beach.

It is hoped that the efforts of Mr. Alan Tonkin to derail the Danish project, will now end. Is it right that a man writes to the Municipality on behalf of the St Francis Bay community which he serves in no official capacity?

In his submission it was stated that since the inception of the Danish PEM System there has been a large loss of sand from the beach. In order to arrive at this loss this party took a starting date for his calculations as March 2008. This is a full eight months before the Danes installed their system! In other words this entire claim is invalid.
Mr. Tonkin’s method measures less than a third of the area surveyed by the Danes who measure a band of beach sixty meters wide along the 2.6 Km of beach they are protecting. Whereas the Danes take readings at exactly the same points each time, the method employed by their detractor does not. The areas being measured are simply not the same and Mr. Tonkin’s time frame is irrelevant.

Of further concern is:

Whereas the Danish system costs a mere R6 million over the five year period of the Agreement it is estimated that the Reef system would cost our already cash strapped Municipality and Kouga Ratepayers around R60 million.
Whereas the Danish system guarantees to stop further sand loss off our beach, the Reef system requires that 40 thousand cubic meters of sand be pumped onto the beach annually! The Reef system cannot guarantee that 50 percent of this sand will be retained. In other words over 20 thousand cubic meters of sand would simply be washed away each year! The cost of pumping this sand onto the beach annually would be in the order of R3 million which is half of the entire cost of the PEM system. The sand at the source of supply proposed for the reef system, namely the estuary, is very fine. This fine sand erodes very easily so sand retention would be difficult.
The Danish PEM system is environmentally friendly and easily maintained by a small crew using a quad bike. The Reef system would need a fleet of trucks offloading sand onto our beach. This sand would then have to be spread out on the beach using heavy machinery causing environmental damage, damage to roads, dust and noise pollution.
The Reef System is not recognized as a beach rehabilitation method and is not advertised as such. It has no recorded successes in beach rehabilitation. In contrast the PEM system is used extensively across the world with success stories in Denmark, Sweden, Malaysia, Ghana, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico and South Africa.

Given these facts it is obvious that the reef system, when used for beach rehabilitation, cannot and should not be offered as a solution to our beach erosion problems.