Wetlands are the Most Threatened Ecosystems

[Lisbeth]

Wetlands are superheroes: expert sets out how they protect people and places



Published: January 31, 2024 4.25pm CET - Jacqueline L Raw, Carbon Project Developer, Nelson Mandela University

In the past, wetlands were often seen as undesirable landscapes – waterlogged areas that were difficult to navigate, impossible to build on or farm, and a source of pests such as mosquitoes. But the view on wetlands has shifted as we have learnt how important these ecosystems are for essential “services”. They purify water and provide habitats for plants and animals.

Wetlands are also critical for supporting some people’s livelihoods, particularly in developing countries, including water-scarce countries like South Africa. Wetlands provide over 1 billion livelihoods globally; 660 million people depend on them for aquaculture and fishing. Livestock owners rely on wetlands as a water source for their animals.

In the last decade, the potential for wetlands to help with climate change adaptation has become more recognised. Wetlands absorb the carbon dioxide (CO₂) that contributes to global warming, and they reduce some of the impacts of climate change by curbing floods.

As a researcher, I led South Africa’s first national assessment of coastal wetlands as “blue carbon” sinks. These are marine habitats that can take up and store more carbon than terrestrial forests. My research has also assessed the impact that climate change will have on mangrove forests, otherwise known as coastal wetlands.

This has given me insights into wetlands and their importance in helping prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Wetlands for people and planet

Wetlands can provide a “nature-based solution” to assist with climate change, but only if they are protected and managed. For example, wetlands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (like all plants do), and convert this into organic carbon (which makes up the plant as it grows). This organic carbon is deposited into the wetland mud as the plant grows through seasonal cycles, and the waterlogged conditions help to trap it there and prevent it being released back into the atmosphere. This carbon can be locked up for decades or centuries, which is a meaningful timescale for tackling climate change challenges.


Sandvlei in Cape Town was flooded in October 2023. Protecting and restoring wetlands can help protect communities against floods. Ashraf Hendricks/ GroundUp

In addition to mitigating climate change, wetlands can help humans to adapt to climate change. Many coastal areas are prone to increased flooding as a result of climate change, due to a combination of higher intensity storms and rainfall as well as rising sea levels. Wetlands are considered “ecological infrastructure” that provides protection from flooding. They have been successfully incorporated into shoreline engineering.

Naturally occurring coastal wetlands (such as mangroves and salt marshes) can also buffer the effects of flooding if they are restored and maintained in good condition.

Unfortunately, in many urban areas these wetlands have been lost or replaced with hard infrastructure such as buildings or roads. The protection from wetlands is then lost and flooding or sea-level rise can be more severe. Detailed studies at the Knysna and Swartkops estuaries in South Africa have shown that salt marshes, another type of wetland, can provide protection from rising sea levels if they are restored.

What’s missing

For wetlands to continue to provide these services for climate mitigation and adaptation, their sustainability must be ensured. Many of these steps must be taken at the level of regional or national government, but individual citizens can also get involved.

Some actions that ordinary people can take to help preserve wetlands include:

• educating themselves and others about the value of wetlands

• participating in wetland restoration projects or clean-ups

• directly contributing to organisations that conserve wetlands, such as the South African Wetland Society and BirdLife South Africa

• conserving water and reducing pollution from household chemicals

• advocating for planning and zoning of new housing and business park developments that include wetlands in their design.

Even with adequate protection, the ability of wetlands to provide a variety of important ecological services is also limited by certain thresholds. For example, catastrophic flooding can cause scouring and erosion of wetlands, wiping them out completely.

Careful planning must be put in place to prepare for climate change-caused disasters like this. The complexity of climate change means that solutions need to be complex too: both nature and human engineering are resources for mitigation and adaptation.

Solutions will also need to be designed for local conditions: there isn’t a general solution for the same challenge in different areas. For example, for a solution that involves creating wetlands as supporting infrastructure, the size of the wetlands and the number of wetlands can influence how effective the flood mitigation of an area will be in comparison to built infrastructure such as flood control reservoirs and dams. Creating natural infrastructure such as wetlands can provide a cost-effective solution to improve built infrastructure in this way.

[Lisbeth]

GAS HUNT

Farmers push back against Highveld gas-drilling exploration plan


The scenic grasslands around Chrissiesmeer support several endemic and threatened bird species, while the wetlands and pans also have large populations of water birds. (Photo: Kate Borradaile)

By Tony Carnie - 18 Sep 2024

Farmers in the Mpumalanga Highveld are resisting a plan to drill the area in search of gas. One farmer warned, ‘When the wetlands and pans have been polluted and nothing will grow here any more, it will be too late. No one will remember that some old man with white hair like me warned against this project… But someone needs to stand up, today, and say that this is wrong.’
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Farmers are banding together to resist a major gas exploration venture covering a quarter of a million hectares, deep below some of the most fertile soils of the Mpumalanga Highveld.

This comes after Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa (Rogesa) announced plans to drill up to 20 gas exploration wells to depths of a kilometre or more on farming land south of Ermelo.

Rogesa says it is targeting “biogenic” (methane) gas, helium and geological hydrogen within government Exploration Block 379. This is a 250,000-hectare chunk of land in southern Mpumalanga that includes the towns of Ermelo, Amersfoort, Chrissiesmeer, Hendrina and Carolina, as well as nearly 1,500 farms and other properties.

The blue line shows the boundaries of the entire gas exploration area in southern Mpumalanga. The light brown area below Ermelo has been earmarked for up to 20 initial exploration wells. (Source: SLR scoping report)

Local beef farmer Kerneels Jansen van Rensburg, one of the many Mpumalanga farmers pushing back against the exploration venture, says the rivers running through his farm are already heavily polluted by untreated human excreta flows from the dysfunctional Ermelo sewage treatment works.

As a result, Van Rensburg has been forced to drill several boreholes to water his cattle and irrigate the fields.

“Maybe gas exploration is not quite as bad as open-cast coal mining – but I’m already totally dependent on groundwater. If this underground gas drilling goes ahead, there is no guarantee against hydrocarbon and acidic pollution of all our water (groundwater and surface water).

“I’m asking myself: Why aren’t these people looking for gas underneath all the abandoned coal mining land, where the ground is now barren because it has never been rehabilitated?”


Beef farmer Kerneels Jansen van Rensburg fears that gas test wells could pollute underground water on his land. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

He suggests that drilling below abandoned and unrehabilitated coal fields would make more sense than risking the future of so many productive farms.

“Are they going to frack? Will we end up with 10,000 gas wells scattered all over Mpumalanga?”

According to SLR, the appointed environmental consultants: “Rhino Oil and Gas has publicly confirmed that their corporate strategy will not be exploring for shale oil or gas and therefore will not use hydraulic fracturing as part of their planned exploration or potential future production.”

In a letter attached to the environmental scoping documents, Rogesa director Travis Smithard and Rhino Holdings SCSp Limited director Cor Timmermans declare that they have “no ambition or interest” in shale gas exploration or hydraulic fracturing (fracking) – a controversial method of extracting gas by blasting and fracturing underground rock formations with high-pressure water, sand and chemicals.

In some parts of the United States, tap water has been polluted by methane gas and other contaminants entering underground supplies in the vicinity of shale gas fracking operations.

Smithard and Timmermans state that: “Technically, we believe that there is no benefit to hydraulic fracturing” and that low-pressure gas deposits would be hard to monetise.

Therefore, they were “excited to play a role in South Africa’s transition towards affordable and reliable low-carbon energy, while contributing to the economic development of communities and protecting the environments in which we are privileged to operate”.


Rogesa boss Travis Smithard. (Photo: Linkedin)

But Van Rensburg says he is not buying this “promise”, noting that Rogesa is just an exploration company.

“Once they find oil or gas, they sell the rights to someone else (so any pledges by the exploration company would not be binding on a separate gas production company).”

Koos Davel, a civil engineering consultant who specialises in mine waste rehabilitation, is also taking Rogesa’s “smooth talk” with a pinch of salt.

Davel has been commissioned to provide technical advice to the newly established Highveld Farmers Mining Pressure Group.

“Rhino say they will be drilling down to about 1,200m to target gas that has permeated down into the sandstone. But gas is lighter than air. So how could gas permeate downwards? It just doesn’t make sense to me. There are just so many anomalies in what the consultants have told us.”

For example, he said, representatives of the gas exploration group told farmers that they would use a very narrow diameter test well to sample underground rock formations.

However, with such a narrow diameter well, the surface area for sampling tests was unlikely to be large enough to gather meaningful data, he argues.


An example of a gas drill rig. (Source: SLR scoping report)

Davel says he remains suspicious that the exploration company will resort to underground fracking to stimulate gas flows, despite the company’s pledge not to frack.

“And if they do frack, no one will know until many years later, when the groundwater has already been polluted. Who will be on-site to police what happens with 20 isolated wells scattered over such a large area? I think their ‘no fracking pledge’ is just nonsense.

“When the wetlands and pans have been polluted and nothing will grow here any more, it will be too late. No one will remember that some old man with white hair like me warned against this project… But someone needs to stand up, today, and say that this is wrong.”

Daily Maverick sent questions about the project to Rogesa on 13 September but has received no answers. Smithard said he was attending a series of meetings in London and would only be in a position to respond after returning to Cape Town on 20 September.

A further point of concern for farmers and other interest groups is that SLR and Rogesa have stated that initial exploration will be confined to a smaller area of land south of Ermelo – not the entire ER 379 exploration block which takes in the environmentally sensitive Chrissiesmeer Lake District – a network of around 270 interconnected lakes and pans which support a wide variety of waterbirds such as flamingo, cranes and other species.

Thousands of lesser flamingos stop over at the Chrisiesmeer lakes and pans during summer. (Photo: Peter Borradaile)

According to the SLR scoping report: “Should initial exploration within the current EIA extent identify a viable natural gas resource, Rhino will then apply for a separate environmental authorisation to undertake exploration within the remainder of the ER area not assessed as part of this EIA.”

However, several residents fear that Rogesa has deliberately adopted an incremental approvals strategy to dampen wider controversy and community pushback. Some also query whether there are sufficient legal safeguards in place to prevent Rogesa from exploring elsewhere in the 250,000ha block after obtaining initial authorisation from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Rogesa has previously lodged oil and gas exploration bids over large sections of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

During a round of public consultation meetings in the KZN Midlands in 2015, the company received a hot reception from local farmers, schoolchildren, landowners and other public interest groups.

The objectors plastered the meeting venues with placards, some of which called on Rhino to “frack off”. Matthew Hemming, an environmental consultant for the gas and oil company, came out of one meeting to find the tyres of his vehicle had been slashed.

Adriaan Groenewald, a member of the new Mpumalanga farmers’ pressure group who attended a public consultation meeting with SLR and Rogesa officials in Ermelo on September 13, said:

“I got the feeling that there was a lot of smooth talk. The real matters of concern to us were smoothly evaded. The other problem is that the departments of agriculture and water were nowhere to be seen (at the Ermelo consultation meeting).

“We need to get the top brass involved to assist us with the dilemmas we’re facing… As we say in Afrikaans: ‘Hulle skitter in hulle afwesigheid’ (they shine in their absence).” DM

To register as an interested or affected party and receive more details about the project, contact Theo Wicks or GP Kriel of SLR by emailing RhinoER379@slrconsulting.com

[Lisbeth]

Wetlands are superheroes: expert sets out how they protect people and places

January 31, 2024 | Jacqueline L Raw
Research Associate, Institute of Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University


Wetlands like this need protection because they absorb carbon dioxide and curb floods. Rodger Shagam/Getty Images

In the past, wetlands were often seen as undesirable landscapes – waterlogged areas that were difficult to navigate, impossible to build on or farm, and a source of pests such as mosquitoes. But the view on wetlands has shifted as we have learnt how important these ecosystems are for essential “services”. They purify water and provide habitats for plants and animals.

Wetlands are also critical for supporting some people’s livelihoods, particularly in developing countries, including water-scarce countries like South Africa. Wetlands provide over 1 billion livelihoods globally; 660 million people depend on them for aquaculture and fishing. Livestock owners rely on wetlands as a water source for their animals.

In the last decade, the potential for wetlands to help with climate change adaptation has become more recognised. Wetlands absorb the carbon dioxide (CO₂) that contributes to global warming, and they reduce some of the impacts of climate change by curbing floods.

As a researcher, I led South Africa’s first national assessment of coastal wetlands as “blue carbon” sinks. These are marine habitats that can take up and store more carbon than terrestrial forests. My research has also assessed the impact that climate change will have on mangrove forests, otherwise known as coastal wetlands.

This has given me insights into wetlands and their importance in helping prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Wetlands for people and planet

Wetlands can provide a “nature-based solution” to assist with climate change, but only if they are protected and managed. For example, wetlands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (like all plants do), and convert this into organic carbon (which makes up the plant as it grows). This organic carbon is deposited into the wetland mud as the plant grows through seasonal cycles, and the waterlogged conditions help to trap it there and prevent it being released back into the atmosphere. This carbon can be locked up for decades or centuries, which is a meaningful timescale for tackling climate change challenges.


Sandvlei in Cape Town was flooded in October 2023. Protecting and restoring wetlands can help protect communities against floods. Ashraf Hendricks/ GroundUp

In addition to mitigating climate change, wetlands can help humans to adapt to climate change. Many coastal areas are prone to increased flooding as a result of climate change, due to a combination of higher intensity storms and rainfall as well as rising sea levels. Wetlands are considered “ecological infrastructure” that provides protection from flooding. They have been successfully incorporated into shoreline engineering.

Naturally occurring coastal wetlands (such as mangroves and salt marshes) can also buffer the effects of flooding if they are restored and maintained in good condition.

Unfortunately, in many urban areas these wetlands have been lost or replaced with hard infrastructure such as buildings or roads. The protection from wetlands is then lost and flooding or sea-level rise can be more severe. Detailed studies at the Knysna and Swartkops estuaries in South Africa have shown that salt marshes, another type of wetland, can provide protection from rising sea levels if they are restored.

What’s missing

For wetlands to continue to provide these services for climate mitigation and adaptation, their sustainability must be ensured. Many of these steps must be taken at the level of regional or national government, but individual citizens can also get involved.

Some actions that ordinary people can take to help preserve wetlands include:

• educating themselves and others about the value of wetlands

• participating in wetland restoration projects or clean-ups

• directly contributing to organisations that conserve wetlands, such as the South African Wetland Society and BirdLife South Africa

conserving water and reducing pollution from household chemicals

• advocating for planning and zoning of new housing and business park developments that include wetlands in their design.

Even with adequate protection, the ability of wetlands to provide a variety of important ecological services is also limited by certain thresholds. For example, catastrophic flooding can cause scouring and erosion of wetlands, wiping them out completely.

Careful planning must be put in place to prepare for climate change-caused disasters like this. The complexity of climate change means that solutions need to be complex too: both nature and human engineering are resources for mitigation and adaptation.

Solutions will also need to be designed for local conditions: there isn’t a general solution for the same challenge in different areas. For example, for a solution that involves creating wetlands as supporting infrastructure, the size of the wetlands and the number of wetlands can influence how effective the flood mitigation of an area will be in comparison to built infrastructure such as flood control reservoirs and dams. Creating natural infrastructure such as wetlands can provide a cost-effective solution to improve built infrastructure in this way.

[Lisbeth]

DEATH BY PARALYSIS

Slow demise — plea to end suffering of waterbirds in polluted Kimberley wetland


A photo from 2016 shows the previous abundance of lesser flamingos at Kamfers Dam in Kimberley. (Photo: Mark D Anderson)

By Tony Carnie | 09 Jan 2025

‘The birds become paralysed. They stop swimming and flying. They can’t stand up on land and they are unable to eat. Their eyelids droop and, finally, they can’t even hold their heads up above the water. So, they drown. Or just stop breathing from respiratory failure.’
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More than 150 waterbirds have died in the Kamfers Dam natural heritage site in the Northern Cape, due to another outbreak of avian botulism thought to be linked to sewage bacteria from the biggest wastewater treatment plant in the diamond city of Kimberley.

Now the avian conservation group Birdlife South Africa is calling on the Sol Plaatje Municipality to intervene and take immediate steps to improve conditions at the dam to halt further suffering by the birds.


Bennie Coetzer retrieves a dead waterbird from the edge of the dam. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)


Paralysed by botulism, a South African shelduck lies close to the water’s edge. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)

Birdlife said in a statement that the current crisis came to light in late November when Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer, environmental specialist at the Ekapa Minerals diamond mine, reported numerous dead and dying birds.

She told Daily Maverick this week that at least 150 birds had now died or been euthanased by a local vet.

“University of Pretoria pathology lab findings suggest botulism as the cause, likely worsened by bacterial imbalance from sewage from the Homevale Wastewater Treatment Works,” Birdlife stated.

Avian botulism is a paralytic disease linked to toxic Clostridium bacteria and exacerbated by low oxygen levels in water and the proliferation of maggots feeding on dead birds.

Lesser flamingos

In addition to numerous species of ducks and waterbirds, Kamfers Dam historically hosted southern Africa’s largest permanent population of lesser flamingos, with more than 80,000 recorded there in 2006.

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However, the flamingos have all but disappeared over more recent years due to rising water levels from the nearby sewage works which prevent these birds from building elevated nesting mounds on mudflats,


A red knobbed coot. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)


A dead grey-headed gull. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)


One of at least 150 waterbirds that have died in the dam over recent weeks. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)

Several dozen birds also died in an outbreak of botulism four years ago, while the Department of Water and Sanitation has also served several warning notices on the Sol Plaatje municipality to reduce flows of untreated or poorly treated effluent from the nearby Homevale sewage works.

Van der Westhuizen-Coetzer said in a phone interview that she visited the dam at the weekend and collected several more dying birds to be euthanased.

“We remove dead birds from the water and take the dying ones to be put down, to spare them from further suffering,” she said.

“The birds become paralysed. They stop swimming and flying. They can’t stand up on land and they are unable to eat. Their eyelids droop and, finally, they can’t even hold their heads up above the water. So, they drown. Or just stop breathing from respiratory failure.”

Van der Westhuizen-Coetzer said new water samples had been collected as previous samples could not be analysed in laboratories over the recent holiday season.

She said a resident sought a court order against the municipality last year to restrict untreated sewage flows into Kamfers Dam but the case had been postponed till next month.


A paralysed Egyptian goose waits to die on the shoreline at Kamfers Dam. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)


A victim of the avian botulism outbreak at Kamfers Dam. (Photo: Ester van der Westhuizen-Coetzer)

Birdlife noted that the Department of Water and Sanitation recently laid criminal charges against the municipality after previous government directives failed to improve the situation.

“As one of only four African breeding sites for lesser flamingos, supported by an artificial breeding island built in 2006, the site earned recognition as a Natural Heritage Site and Key Biodiversity Area.

“For the past four to five years, flamingos have been unable to breed due to artificially high water levels submerging the breeding island… The once-abundant flamingo population is sadly now only visible on local business signage.

‘Shocking deterioration’

BirdLife South Africa CEO Mark Anderson said: “It is shocking to see the extent to which the water quality has been permitted to deteriorate in Kamfers Dam… Birds are dying unnecessarily and in such numbers. We urge the Sol Plaatje Municipality to intervene without delay and take the required steps to improve conditions at Kamfers Dam for the sake of the birds, and the people of Kimberley.”

Responding to questions from Daily Maverick, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) confirmed it had “initiated administrative enforcement action to instruct the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality to correct its failure to maintain required standard of effluent discharges into Kamfers dam”.

“Due to non-compliance with administrative enforcement, the Department has opened a criminal case against the municipality for pollution. The case is currently under investigation.”

In an official presentation in September 2023, a senior official of the Department of Water and Sanitation further confirmed that inspections revealed poor operation and maintenance of water and sanitation by the municipality,

The first warning notices were issued as far back as August 2015, followed by a series of DWS directives in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

“Representations were received by DWS from the municipality for some of the issued directives in which the municipality indicated that they are having financial challenges to address the problems identified.”

Two further directives were issued in 2022 following a series of meetings with municipal officials to discuss action plans.

Sol Plaatje spokesperson Thabo Mothibi said in response to questions that the municipality “planned to provide a comprehensive response in relation to efforts that are to unfold”.

“Collaborative efforts with the likes of Transnet will also be spoken into, especially around the funding that has been secured for remedial work. Arresting overflow and addressing the serious concerns raised are of a high priority. Hence, we can assure the public that deliberations have unfolded and we are ready to take action.

“An assault on environmental sustainability and a threat to the wellbeing of bird species warrant action,” he concluded. DM.