New Palmiet River Valley Conservancy tackles pollution
The World Fish Migration Day which was hosted at Palmiet Nature Reserve Hall highlighted the importance of having functional rivers.
DRIVEN by their vision, purpose, mission, ethos and principles, the idea of forming the Palmiet River Valley Conservancy was presented by Lee D’Eathe at a recent meeting held at the Palmiet Nature Reserve Hall.
This was followed with the formalisation of the conservancy at the same venue on Saturday, 21 April 2018, on World Fish Migration Day.
The day highlighted the importance of having functional rivers; which was ably demonstrated by Mohamed Desai who is doing his doctorate and doing research for Aquatic Ecosystem Research Programme (AER). D’Eathe of the Palmiet River Watch said the conservancy has evolved from the Palmiet River Watch (PRW), initiated in May 2013, and its mission is to ensure there is continual, meaningful, significant, sustainable and measurable reductions of environmental infractions within the Palmiet River Valley.
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“The Palmiet River Watch focuses on observations, reporting pollution events and undertaking river health and water quality assessments; and has gathered information which conclusively confirms the community’s claim that ‘ongoing and repeated pollution and habitat destruction has caused the aquatic creatures and plants, in abundance a few years ago, to all but disappear’.
“Even the Palmiet Plant (Pronium serratum), after which the river is named, has been wiped out completely. The main causes of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss include industrial pollution, fresh water pipe bursts, sewage pollution, poor storm-water management (erosion, river bed scouring and banks collapsing), waste disposal, invasive alien species (animals, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants), land fragmentation and land misuse, and the poor application of legislation and bylaws,” said D’Eathe.
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At the World Fish Migration Day event, Mohamed showed the impact of man-made obstacles that disrupt fish migration and the numerous vital life cycles of aquatic creatures dependent upon fish and healthy aquatic systems. Interesting information and specimens were on display, including a large eel.
Flowing directly into the Umgeni River Estuary, the Palmiet River has many man-made obstacles to fish migration, including: sand mining, several weirs, illegal fishing activities, poor water quality, engineered low flow and induced high flow, and frequent and severe water pollution occurrences with sewage and chemicals.
l More information is available on the website https://palmietvalley.co.za; and anyone interested in giving meaningful support to the Palmiet River Watch or the new conservancy can contact D’Eathe on palmiet valleymanagement@gmail.com.
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