Walking the Lion’s River

1 Reply

The Midlands Conservancies Forum believes that protecting the water catchment on which millions of people rely for their daily water is absolutely critical.  An approach to N3 Toll Concession earlier this year, confirmed that they too care about the well being of communities alongside the N3 Route and were keen to support efforts to raise awareness of the plight of our rivers. The Mayday for Rivers team, lead by Penny Rees who walked 311 kms along the Mngeni River last year, begin to explore the Lion’s River this weekend.  Documenting their journey, recording alien vegetation and other impacts, to produce a complete picture of the health of the river.

r Lion's River

Penny Rees commments: “The campaign in May 2012 made it quite evident that the Mngeni river has many negative impacts along its length. The team have reported on these impacts, and made recommendations of possible intervention actions that can be taken to resolve and remove many of the impacts. However they observed that many of these impacts originate in the Mngeni tributaries, and it is thus essential to be able to identify negative impacts on the tributaries. Without this knowledge, working purely on the Mngeni River, will be ineffective.  The methodology will be precisely the same as that of the 2012 Mngeni River walk. We will record by means of photograph, Dictaphone and GPS all impacts seen and in addition will conduct regular water Mini SASS tests. After the walks, reports will be compiled on our findings, in the same format as the main 240 page report on the uMngeni River walk undertaken in May 2012 and we will also compile reports for landowners.”

r Lion's River

Due to development and growth of invasive alien plants in the catchment, the flows in our rivers have dwindled and the pollution load increased.  With the removal of, and damage to natural ecosystems that filter pollutants, attenuate floods and release water during drought periods, the quantity and quality of water in these rivers has been affected to the point where there is no longer any assimilative capacity.  The result is water that is severely polluted by sewage as well as runoff from agricultural and industrial developments and rivers that alternately flood or dry up to a trickle of their former flows.  This affects our ability to adapt to climate change and the requirements to provide food and work for our burgeoning urban population.

After walking the Lion’s River, the team intend to make this information available to landowners and other stakeholders and then  proceed to the other tributaries as time and funding become available – Karkloof, Dargle, Furth, Indezi, Gwenspriut, Symmonds Stream. Rietspruit, Mpofana and Yarrow.

The N3 Route is the major ‘artery’ to Durban, pivotal to economic and social development.  The Mngeni River and it’s tributaries (the KZN Catchment) are often called the ‘lifeblood’ of KZN and the connections between these two visual symbols of prosperity and well-being make this an ideal partnership.  Particularly, as N3TC is a major sponsor of the world renowned Midmar Mile and shares a concern that the viability of the event could very easily be threatened by poor water quality.

This project provides a unique opportunity for N3TC to be directly involved in Conservation alongside the N3 Route and contribute to protecting essential ecosystems services and biodiversity.  The MCF provides an inspirational example of collaborative conservation and community cooperation and has the potential to be replicated in other areas between Cedara and Heidelberg where N3TC is involved.

Follow the River Walkers on their blog: www.umngeniriverwalk.wordpress.com or on our facebook page: facebook/midlandsconservanciesforum

r lions river vlei

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , on by .

About Midlands Conservancies Forum

Welcome to the Midlands Conservancies Forum Blog. The conservancy movement in South Africa has its roots in KZN Midlands with Balgowan being the first conservancy established in 1978 by landowners in the area who were concerned about the reduction in the number of game and general degradation of the environment. Today there are 14 conservancies within or overlapping the Umgeni Local Municipality. In keeping pace with international environmental issues and the ever-increasing threat to our dwindling biodiversity the conservancy movement has expanded its influence to include challenges way beyond the founding concerns for the reduction in game and general degradation of the environment. The fact of the matter is that, at the very least, the state of the environment in the KZN Midlands is of vitally and direct importance to well in excess of 3 million people who depend largely on this region for their fresh water. In terms of global the planet has 34 biodiversity hotspots which are the Earth’s most biologically rich and threatened areas. These hotspots hold especially high numbers of unique species, yet their combined area now covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. South Africa is home to 3 of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots and the Midlands not only falls into the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot but is one of the 21 priority nodes that have been identified by the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund for investment aimed at securing existing biodiversity. The Midlands Conservancy Forum is proud to have been awarded a two year grant that has been used to establish the MCF Biodiversity Stewardship project that is working closely with KZN Wildlife. The reality of the Conservancy movement is that it has until know been championed by volunteers who are landowners and, in many cases, have precious little time and therefore this needs to be used to the maximum potential. This has lead to the establishment, and current success, of the MCF. It is an ideal forum to share knowledge, experiences and collectively tackle common issues in the most co-0rdinated and effective way possible. It is also a forum that has the capacity, through its landowner support base, geographical influence and biological inventory, to attract funding for critical environmental projects. It is also a forum for any and all government departments, NGOs and industries to engage with environmentally minded landowners. Through this blog we hope to promote the aims of the MCF in general and the sharing of information in particular. It is your platform to express and respond to ideas and concerns. Please use it wisely and respectfully!

1 thought on “Walking the Lion’s River”

Leave a comment