Beach properties could be at risk
There are practical reasons for protecting the admiralty reserve.
LOCAL environmental consultant Pippa La Cock is appealing to beachfront property owners to protect the natural vegetation in the admiralty reserve.
This follows a complaint she received about the destruction of vegetation in front of a beachfront home in Perth Road, Port Edward. She has forwarded the complaint to the relevant authorities and has asked them to investigate the matter.
While protecting the natural environment was beneficial from an aesthetic point of view, there was far more at stake, she said. Destroying the vegetation in the admiralty reserve meant putting homes, other buildings and infrastructure like water pipes at risk.
“Erosion doesn’t always happen slowly. When storms strike, serious erosion can happen overnight, damaging property. It is not a question of if but when another serious storm will arrive. When it does it will cause destruction in beachfront areas where there is no natural vegetation to act as a buffer,” she said.
She pointed out that coastal areas north of Durban were spending a fortune to stop destruction of beachfront property by preventing further damage to the coastal vegetation from taking place.
Nature provided so many expensive services for free. If looked after properly, natural vegetation could save people from having to find expensive engineering solutions to problems like erosion, storm damage and water drainage issues.
Well-maintained green spaces also contributed to people’s general well-being.
“Imagine New York without Central Park, London without its beautiful parks or Cape Town without Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Imagine our Hibiscus Coast without its beautiful coastal vegetation,” she said.
