Amid the human and economic tragedies wrought by the KZN floods, there was cause for some celebration last week when rising floodwaters broke open the mouth of the Lake St Lucia estuary.
Ecological experts fear the artificial breaching of the Lake St Lucia estuary mouth on Wednesday afternoon poses a major setback for a multimillion ecological restoration project financed by the World Bank to reverse decades of human interference in the natural functioning of the heartland of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a World Heritage Site.
Four years ago, the Isimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and then Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa won a landmark victory in the high court against local sugar farmers who had demanded that the lake be breached to protect some of their fields from back-flooding as a more natural water flow was restored to the lake. The court victory – later affirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeal – opened the way to reconnect the uMfolozi River to Lake St Lucia, which has been increasingly starved of water due to nearly 50 years of human interference.