“In the international context, in terms of the percentage of
a country’s area set aside for protection, SA ranks a lowly 139 out of 192,”
says Rob Fryer, deputy chair of OREF. “The country has only 8% of its area
under protection, whereas the world average is 15%. SA is very far from being
one of the average (2018 figures). In the African context, its area under
protection ranks bottom of the heap – 30th out of 30 countries.” He says
according to SA’s own National Biodiversity Assessment, of the six
internationally defined biodiversity “realms” the estuarine realm is the most
threatened with 99% of the country’s estuarine area considered “threatened”.
“Estuarine management is particularly complex, because there
is a host of government agencies with jurisdictions that must be coordinated
for estuarine management to be effective,” he said. “The National Estuarine
Management Protocol is supposed to guide this coordination by assigning
‘management authority’ to an appropriate sphere of government best placed to
perform the necessary coordination.” In the case of the Onrus estuary the
role should have been taken on by Overstrand Municipality (OM). Unfortunately,
the OM administration has yet to accept the coordination role, so by default
the OREF has been fulfilling this role. Unlike other estuary forums, OREF has
taken a strategic decision to position itself formally as a juristic person
under the law. It is the first and only estuary forum in SA to have attained
this important distinction by registering as a non-profit organisation (NPO)
and public benefit organisation (PBO). Having done so OREF has a bank account
and can issue tax deduction certificates to donors who fund its activities and
projects; donations to the cause are of course invited. Among OREF’s important
achievements are the following:
• Development of the capacity within OREF, the ODM and OM to
interpret recreational water quality data confidently, using national
recreational water guidelines to be able, for the first time, to classify the
normal recreational water quality in the estuary so that this can confidently
be communicated to the public. Considerable expertise has been developed in
this important aspect of estuarine management.
• Facilitation and technical support of ODM and OM officials
to draw up an integrated protocol for the analysis and interpretation of
recreational water quality, the response to indications of or actual
occurrences of pollution incidents, and the communication of such events to the
public. The resulting protocol will soon be communicated in a separate press
release along with the introduction of signs that will inform the public of the
recreational water quality. This is ground-breaking and should set a precedent
for other estuary forums to emulate.
• Motivating and reviewing the inspection of all sewage
tanks that, if faulty, may result in seepage of contaminated water into the
estuary. To ensure that improvements are sustained OREF is motivating for a
bylaw requiring periodic tank inspection to ensure improved tank maintenance in
the future. According to Fryer estuary management remains a challenge. “Estuary
management forums are not given adequate recognition for their important roles
in the National Estuarine Management Protocol,” he said. “Accordingly, when the
opportunity was offered to participate in a process to amend the Protocol, OREF
submitted detailed recommendations that it believes will significantly improve
the ability of estuary forums to positively impact the health of estuaries.”
