LETTERS: M4 dune is taking back its own

Every day I take the M4 into Durban to drop my son off at school and to go to work. Over the past 16 years I have become used to the ever-increasing number of cars, taxis, trucks and busses on this 40km drive along a very beautiful stretch of coastline. Occasionally I have stopped along the way to watch the dolphins, the odd whale or just to appreciate the sunrise in the winter or to marvel at the vast difference in the sea’s appearance from one season to another.
My drives have, however, became more cumbersome over these years because the increase in road users has brought with it an increase in problems and annoyances. Apart from the taxis and busses that simply stop right in front of you and block half the lane, there are trucks spraying you with sand and stones daily.
There are more pedestrians running over the road, especially at night, and more litter being thrown out of vehicles with no concern for other vehicles behind them or the environment. Every time we have some rain it looks like a good couple of waste removal trucks dumped their loads overnight with all the rubbish being washed from nearby settlements.
The cutting of grass and clearing of overhanging branches along the road is done twice a year only and the resulting waste is either left right there or dumped in the closest hole. Every time that we have a downpour and sand is washed into the road, it takes a week for somebody to come and clean up the area.
A major stone on my shoe is the ongoing problems with the sand dunes opposite Boys Town. I am amazed that there are so few accidents on this very dangerous bend where you constantly have to swerve out to avoid the ever-growing sand mass crawling into the road.
Last year somebody came up with the idea to “rehabilitate” these dunes by clearing the natural bushes and replace it with a manmade garden. I know nothing about dune rehabilitation, but I could see from the start that this was going to be a disaster. It took massive machinery weeks to push the sand away (just to get it blown back again by the wind, in order to clear a small area to be converted into “natural looking” garden.
I say garden, because it took weeks for the soil to be properly composted, planted and covered with mesh and bark. I know nothing about gardening but who does not know that if you plant something on a sand dune your chances of keeping it alive are minimal, because there are no nutrients for the roots and sand does not retain water that well. The timing of the project was also very suspect because it took place during the height of our drought.
My happiness when the plants began to grow was unfortunately short-lived because as the plants grew, so did the groundswell behind them. Not even a year later, the dune is busy taking its own back and is simply rolling over the shrubs supposed to stop it in its tracks.
The time and resources (I wonder how much this one has cost us?) wasted on this fruitless exercise could have been spend much better on keeping the roadside clean, neat and in better condition than it is at the moment.
FRANCOIS BOSSERT
Ballito
Letter shortened.