THE ASSOCIATION’S APRIL 2014 NEWS LETTER.
Firstly we must apologise for an April quarterly news letter that should have come out in February! However so much was still in the melting pot in February that we decided to postpone it until now. One such factor was a much anticipated meeting with the Municipal Manager and his officials over so many matters that had seen progress grind to a halt, and a revue of the Christmas holiday season. After several postponements this finally took place in March, and yielded a number of promising results and proposals. In fact we will be quoting in several instances direct from those minutes of this meeting to indicate how much our effort, to construct a cooperative relationship with our municipal officials,is succeeding.
One of our main goals aimed forduring the meeting was to emphasise how Witsand’s village and coastal infrastructure had deteriorated over the past ten to fifteen years, and how we had, as one of our members put it, become the poor hand maiden of Hessequa’s communities. We got this clearly across to the Municipal Manager and his team where it met with a considerable degree of sympathy, and the promise to try to help us improve matters so we could reasonably compare ourselves in due course with the beautifully maintained town of Stilbaai or village of Jongensfontein. Minutes-Item 11:ADDITIONAL STAFF FOR WITSAND’S MUNICIPAL WORKFORCE: Though no clarity was obtained as to comparisons in Hessequa with other locations, it appeared that the Municipality was aware of the problem here. Although there was no budget available for additional posts, they felt that both Rayno’s and Etienne’s departments could make regular extra labour available to Witsand. Christopher also noted that, for the first time, Coastcare, who had been instructed to widen their responsibilities to include the whole township area as opposed to only the coastline, were now finally cooperating with him in this regard, though required a high degree of supervision and motivation.Following an impassioned plea from Jack, that Witsand’s residents and businesses seek to beautify the town back to the standards that applied to it 20 years ago, as opposed to the slow but steady deterioration in recent years, Johan suggested as follows. He stated that, in both Stilbaai and Jongensfontein, owner and business committees existed who both raised funds and participated in motivating beautification of their towns. In such circumstances the Municipality willingly saw fit to cooperate with them in respect of assistance with labour and equipment, and sometimes even financial support. He suggested to Johnny that such a committee should be formed at Witsand. Johnny and the other WRA representatives thought this a very good idea and he undertook to motivate it accordingly.
Over the long outstanding question of water, we again quote Item 2 from the minutes: WATER; Jack pointed out that this item had been on the Agenda since he arrived in Witsand, and little or no progress had been made, which was a serious bone of contention with our members.
Johan explained that negotiations were ongoing with Overberg Water to obtain a larger quota for both Heidelberg and Witsand, and he asked Rayno to find out what progress had been made. He also explained that OW had indicated that the Duivenhoks dam canal system leakage was a big problem particularly during dry periods. If they could overcome this, there would be no problem with shortages.
Jack queried the question of the Witsand pipeline carrying capacity, which Etienne Steyn had said precluded any major increase in our quota allotment. Johan stated that he had been told that this was not correct, but asked Rayno to confirm this point.
Based on that premise, if correct, and failing any other reason for non availability, Jack pointed out that Tolly, the previous Witsand manager, had said that once the new reservoir had been completed Witsand’s water problems would be over. This was due to the fact that the borehole delivered enough, together with the increased storage capacity, to ensure that, even at times of higher usage than their combined delivery capacity, water shortages would not be encountered in the future, unless Witsand experienced sudden abnormal expansion which was not expected. Subsequent to Tolly’s demise and Etienne’s departure, Reggie Wesso made available to Rob Wilson, a report that seemed to concur with this view.
Jack then pointed out that it was common cause that the borehole water on its own was not potable in regard to ground pollution as it needed maintenance, as well as colour, taste, and smell. Nearly two years ago it had been foreseen that a filtration system would be needed to improve such quality and he asked what progress had been made in this direction. Rayno confirmed that membrane purification had been mentioned and Johan asked that he and Reggie should update all of us on these matters before the end of March.
The question of too low a working pressure over peak season was confirmed by Christopher, and it appeared that there was no pressure pump and only limited manual control to the Gravity flow system. Johan suggested that they investigate the relevance of installing a pump with a demand adjusting unit.
Witsand enjoyed a shortened but good season. However it had become clear that the influx of day visitors particularly on the High days resulted in Witsand’s limited facilities becoming totally inadequate which was leading to much frustration and potential aggression. Furthermore the longer term visitors, paying substantial rentals over the season, and home owners using their holiday homes, expressed extreme unhappiness with the situation. In discussion with the Municipal officials, it was agreed that a solution would have to be found to possibly limit numbers.
The same problem was encountered repeatedly during the holidays in regard to boat activity and parking congestion down at the government jetty. Apart from interfering with the NSRI’s emergencies, matters threatened and even did get out of hand on several occasions. It was agreed that continuous control was needed over such periods, and that the parking facilities for both boats and cars would have to be improved urgently.
Finally the question of updating, and in some instances the correction, of street numbering as surveyed by some of the associations members, has now been approved and imported into the Municipal records. These will now appear on all municipal accounts in future, and if this does not occur in anyone’s case, please phonethe accounts department to put it right. Then in these days of couriers, and in case of any sort of emergency, your Association would please ask you to display this number appropriately on your property as soon as possible in your own interests.
We were pleased to note the new valuation role, and that itappears to be more realistic and consistent than last time. Of course there will be some mistakes but we believe that on reasonable appeal these will be corrected.
HARBOURS AND JETTIES are also dealt with out of the Municipal Minutes, Item 5: On the request of Johnny, Hendrik brought us up to date as to the programme for the required upgrading of these facilities. Following a question from Jack, who pointed out that these upgrades were part of a comprehensive list of upgrades, improvements, and required development of Witsand, and asked as to when action promised was to be taken in this regard, he indicated that it still had to be submitted to Council, and he hoped this would happen shortly.
As to the harbours he reported that the final tender would shortly be called for the revised repairs to the Kraaltjie which would then be undertaken early in the new 2014/2015 financial year. During this year it was hoped to prepare for the upgrade to the NSRI slipway and hopefully the replacement and other development to the “Government Jetty” and surrounds. This could then be budgeted for in 2015/2016. In the meantime further temporary repairs had been authorised and awarded to a contractor under the supervision of the WRA.
One area, where we have not yet been too successful in bringing matters to a satisfactory conclusion, is in the field of Tourism. Hessequa’s structures and actions in this regard virtually came to a standstill as a result of very poor management over the past few years. Efforts are being made by all parties to correct the situation, with the Council and Municipality fully appreciating the need for this. We battle on with full cognisance as to the need and importance of this to a village so dependent on tourism as its main economic activity.
On to recreation, for after all why do people come to Witsand if it isn’t to relax, enjoy, and unwind? You should know your committee is determined to see so many of Witsand’s attractions upgraded, improved upon and expanded. The loss of the Hotel was a setback, but the new owners of the Restaurant and famous Pub are specialists in the field of Adventure Sports. We sincerely hope that they will be successful in their endeavours to bring a new dimension to Witsand’s popularity, and deserve our unqualified support. We are also blessed with a new upmarket Conference Facility, Pub, and Restaurant, in the form of The River Breeze Centre. It is these types of developments that will add immeasurably to Witsand’s attractiveness as a holiday and fun destination all year round. The next logical development will be to see some tourist guides setting up here, where we have so much to offer with our beautiful and ecologically sound river, our whales, fish, sea and beaches, and our heritage;and what about those beautiful farms. After all Tourism guiding and routes are the modern requirements of all travellers, both International and National.
Lastly we would do ourselves and you, our members, a disservice if we did not deal with the question of our river and sea angling, and the much rightly criticised and discriminatory night fishing ban that for some inexplicable reason is only applied to our river. Of course we need to rebuild our decimated fishing resources, but how will this be achieved by banning fishing in one river out of one hundred and fifty, let alone ignoring the sea where by far the greatest amount of exploitation occurs particularly to the dusky kob species. Can it be fair to the local stakeholders and visitors that such discriminatory action should be allowed? When I asked a scientific friend of mine why their fraternity supported such a ban, he told me that the idea had been to ban night fishing in all rivers, but a crumb off the dining table was better than nothing at all. I do not think so! In fact I think it to be an utterly inane and as unscientific a statement as I have ever heard, hardly worthy of his undoubted erudition and intelligence on such matters.
How about the fishing then? Well this season has been the poorest for many years despite the local beliefthat allgreen summersresult in outstanding fishing. Unfortunately nature does not listen to you or me, nor to local folklore. Firstly a modest flood in August turned the river fresh as well as reducing salinity levels in the adjacent sea off the mouth, thus halting the traditional shrimp and dusky kob migration into the river during August and/or September. Just as October was trying to improve matters, along came a far more substantial flood in November effectively washing out all the salt water again, and with it our improving stocks of fish. Over Christmas matters started to get better when yet another minor flood setback in January saw landings and conditions deteriorating once again with the net result that kob landings from the river have reached an all time low according to the locals, and we have not once experienced a single traditional grunter run this year. The “greens” and many of the scientists will tell you that the cause is over fishing! This I doubt. I have fished my whole life in this river (for some 67 years) and elsewhere, and know that of course over fishing has decimated some of our stocks, but fishing is cyclical and very sensitive to local environmental change, particularly in estuaries. This unfortunately is not, or cannot, always be taken into account with scientific study.
However the sea compensated for the river’s shortcomings to a degree, which caused the congestion referred to earlier in this letter. Although the kob were noticeable by their absence, the inshore species, probably because their access to the river was deprived them, were steadily available in small numbers but good size. Now in March the silver kob has returned in fair numbers. In fact Kob catches along the whole Eastern coastline have been poor this year which is a bit of a mystery as visible juvenile recruitment last year was very strong.
One matter that is encouraging is an apparent improvement in the availability and size of reef fish probably caused by the perceived reduction in exploitation levels over the past few years. It is a pity that a lack of record keeping and stats at departmental level renders the real measurement of such impossible!
Have a good year, your scribe.