River can’t be routed through basin port
Another solution needs to be found for flow of Mlazi River.
WARD 66 councillor, Duncan Du Bois’ suggestion of diverting the Mlazi River into the area designated for the proposed dig-out port is not feasible in terms of the port plan.
In response to his suggestion, senior consultant for the dig-out port, Graham Muller, emailed Du Bois and explained why this is not an option.
“Many of the flaws of the existing Port of Durban arise from its fundamental characteristic as an estuary. This creates conflict between the role of the port as a logistics hub and its role as an extremely valuable fish nursery.
A primary design principle of the new dig-out port is to avoid this conflict. Hence the design of the port will be as a basin with no fresh water flow at all into the new port.
Another key design characteristic is that the new port must be able to accommodate the latest container ships with a draft of up to 20 metres and a container capacity of around 10,000 TEUs. This is easy in a basin port with no inflow of silt. In an estuary, this is almost impossible due to the continuous tendency of river-borne silt to settle in a deep water port as the river flow meets the resistance of inflowing sea tides.
The new port has to be a basin port or it will fail in its key purpose,” said Muller.
