YOU tell us! Must we turn a blind eye to blatant neglect of our waterways for fear of chasing tourists away?
Ugu South Coast Tourism CEO Justin Mackrory sent us a message recently saying that he had had an ‘irate message’ concerning our story on our website two weeks ago about the sorry state of our waterways. The messenger was worried people would cancel for Easter and the story would damage the South Coast’s reputation even further after the water fiasco over the festive season.
Quoting experts, the article from our sister newspaper, the Mid South Coast Mail, warned that the river at Widenham – clogged with water lettuce – was an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and, eventually, the malaria bearing anopheles kind was not beyond the realms of belief.
Yet officialdom (and even ordinary people, it seems) are prepared to don blinkers and let it happen… to secure a quick buck in the short term.
Where are the priorities? If these very important rivers and waterways are just left to get worse, there WILL be no tourism in the long run.
Instead of chastising us for highlighting the dangers and encouraging government and municipalities to act, environmentalists and even ordinary citizens should be banding together in a #cut-the-crap campaign.
Surely one doesn’t have to bring out all the old clichés about how crucial clean water is to prove a point?
We all know it, but why the apathy? Why hide the facts for fear of ‘harming tourism’? This is a countrywide problem and it seems officials have now even abandoned a project to get rid of life-stifling hyacinth at a toxic Hartbeespoort Dam, according to Carte Blanche.
Hyacinth and plastic were more evident than water during a gruelling trip down the Dusi and Umgeni rivers this last week.
OK, maybe the situation has become much worse in recent years, but administrators of old also need to take much of the blame for this horrid stink of affairs. An old lifeguard tells the story of how overflow pipes at sewage pumps were positioned to flow into rivers like the Ivungu (Uvongo) right from the start. Maybe they thought there would always be a sufficient flow to flush it all out to sea.
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However, no forethought was given to growth or to rivers actually drying up. Now modern day municipalities sit with the problem and get lambasted.
Our country faces many problems that divide us. But we really should be united as ‘one’ when it comes to protecting our environment.
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