Another sports club is facing ruin, thanks to the diversion of the Toti River.
Members of Amanzimtoti Ski-Boat Club have no way of launching their boats after the diverted river cut off access to the beach about four weeks ago.
Since the river has not been allowed to breach naturally, directly out to sea, it flows over a man-made weir and adjacent to the embankment, before flowing out by Chain Rocks, which is where the ski-boat club launches from.
“Should the river flow not be breached, allowing flow directly out to sea and thereby preventing erosion and undermining of the embankment, within a short space of time we will see a similar scenario of the derailment of a goods train in December 2012,” said chairman, Craig Grossett. “The river mouth needs to be urgently breached and the river flow completely diverted away from the embankment.”
Craig said their launch site has been inoperable for the last 18 months and the only respite was during the repair work of the embankment, when the contractors halted the water flow to stablise the embankment with hundreds of sand-filled bags.
The man in charge of the rehabilitation of the dune, Boet Fredericks of Leomat, kindly donated and placed some left-over sand-filled bags to protect the launch site, but already the water has eroded some of the massive bags.
“Now conditions have returned to what they were prior to the start of the repair work,” said Craig. “Unless the river mouth is permanently diverted away from the embankment, I’m concerned that damage to the repaired bank retaining the railway line will continue with bad weather and each tidal movement.
The club has never asked council for a cent. We just want a solution to this problem and for it to assist us legally.”
The 45-member strong club has already lost members to neighbouring clubs and Craig fears it is only a matter of time before they will be forced to shut the doors to one of the oldest ski-boat clubs in the province.
Toti Canoe Club is also fighting to keep its doors open. Three years ago, the club boasted 140 members, which dropped to about 15 this year due to the poor water quality of the river and the water hyacinth clogging it.
“My father was one of the founding members of the ski-boat club and I still have memories of launching with him when I was nine-years-old. If the club closes, the road leading to the launch site by Chain Rocks will soon be overgrown and it won’t be long before vagrants and criminal elements move in. Lifesavers also cannot launch their craft here, as they too battle to get across. We are getting desperate now.”
In my line of work,experience over the years have shown me that if you divert a river, it allways returns to its original path. Nature just does this and if you mess with her arrangements, she’ll come back and bite you big time!