New drainage system at Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve fails against recent heavy rains

THE newly installed drainage system at Glenwood’s Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve has failed to stand up to recent heavy rains.

This comes after months of delays in the project, which aimed at addressing the problem of erosion in Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve.

Crispin Hemson, chair of the Friends of Pigeon Valley, said work was undertaken to address the erosion on the main track of the reserve, after years of pressure on the municipality to do so by the Friends, and started late last year.

He said from the outset, there was a lack of attention to the requirements for public participation, stating that he felt it would have been very helpful to all concerned if a meeting of officials, contractor and the Friends had taken place, and if an environmental consultant could have been involved in the project from the start.

Unfortunately, there was no such meeting and the contractor seemed surprised by the very damaging flows that occurred after work started. After work stopped in mid-December for the construction break, rainfall over the period caused major damage and erosion to occur in the reserve.

ALSO READ: Erosion causes damage at Durban’s Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve

Work on the project finally resumed in June, and a drainage system was installed at the top of the reserve, running down to a retention pond.

However, during the first heavy rainfall this spring on 29 September, the new drainage system took severe strain.

The drain at the top of the reserve was damaged, and water flushed sand down to the retention pond, which became totally silted up.

Commenting on the result, Hemson said: “The pond hasn’t helped, and erosion has developed at its edges, as nothing has been done to protect these. The contractor has had to keep digging the soil and moving it back up again, and erosion is evident in the same places as before. The top drain couldn’t cope with the amount of water that came down in the heavy rain and it seems the intake was too small, as I have seen the extent of flow at that point.”

In correspondence with the contractor, engineer and municipality on 5 October, Hemson said he wondered if the correct rainfall figures were taken into account in this project.

ALSO READ: Officials taken to task over delays in addressing excavation work at Nature Reserve 

“This area has much higher rainfall than the Durban average and the heavy falls that we have had at times in the project are not unusual, they are typical. I question whether the design work took the rainfall patterns of this area into account. Every time there has been heavy rainfall since the start of the project, it has caused damage to the project that in our view has been quite unnecessary and led to the closure of the reserve for a period. We are not setting ourselves up as engineers or would-be contractors, it is just that we have a lot of information that should have been drawn on,” he said.

Hemson said his concern was that he was not sure that anyone would have reported damage in the reserve unless the Friends had.

“We are very concerned that, as a result of these lengthy delays, we are back in a rainy season. We are very concerned over the possibility of entering the December construction holiday without finalisation of this project. We have questioned the relevant officials as to when the project will conclude. If we are serious about the commitment to make Durban Africa’s most liveable city by 2030, then we need better forms of co-operation between the municipality and the citizens, whether these are people in suburbs, townships or informal settlements. We can do better than this,” he said.

No response to a query by Berea Mail had been received from the municipality at time of going to print.

Do you want to receive news alerts via Telegram? Send us a message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple