The Walrus and the Carpenter

This was Glencairn Beach this morning, which I think is one of the nicest swimming beaches in Cape Town, with some of the clearest water:

 

Glencairn Beach at sunrise, from the rocks at the south end

This was also Glencairn Beach this morning:

City Council contractors “re-profiling” the dunes and putting the sand “back into circulation” at Glencairn Beach, 19 May 2023

Ostensibly, according to the mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment and our local ward councillor in this article in the False Bay Echo, “the intention is to restore the dunes so that they can once again serve as natural buffers against storm surges and the longer-term projected impacts of sea-level rise” and also that the “the City is committed to keeping our coast pristine”.

However it turns out that, contrary to claims, the ulterior motivation does not appear to be preservation of the natural heritage of the beach and dunes at all, but the preservation of the single gauge railway track. When asked what "re-profiling" looks like, the contractors admitted that it's actually just flattening the dunes and dumping the sand into the sea "because the wind blows the sand from the dunes onto the railway tracks." (My emphasis, and... I just... don't have words!)

I was also told (rather condescendingly) that I don't need to concern myself because lots of experts have decided what is best. Which only makes me even more concerned. (With good reason, if the "experts" who designed the miserable failure of an "upgrade" to the parking, walkway, and tidal pool are anything to go by.)

Vula, the environmental contractor, claims to have collected all the dune plants to replant them after they've stabilised the dunes with straw bales (hmm, how about kelp bales?) however most of the plants were still on the dunes and I watched many this morning being washed into the sea. (Maybe I should be more unrealistically generously optimistic, but I can't help imagining an unusable, shrinking, unsheltered, prickly, straw-covered beach while mostly empty trains rattle and screech by, oblivious...)

This is especially distressing because twenty years ago a cheap, simple, and effective solution to keeping sand off the tracks was in place: a sprinkler system pumped sea water over the dunes when the wind blew, effectively stopping most of the sand from blowing into the air. But apparently there was a bureaucratic problem with maintenance: the pipes and sprinklers were on City land (the dunes) while the beneficiary was PRASA, and so the system fell into disuse. (I just do not have enough eye-rollage in me for this.)

And yes, this is all happening on Fish Hoek beach too.

I'm not sure whether the City is the Carpenter and PRASA the Walrus, or the other way 'round, but this keeps running through my mind:

The Walrus and the Carpenter
  Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
  Such quantities of sand:
'If this were only cleared away,'
  They said, 'it would be grand!'

'If seven maids with seven mops
  Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
   'That they could get it clear?'
'I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
  And shed a bitter tear.

from The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll

Eish. May common sense and sanity prevail, and may you enjoy a superb weekend.