R72m secured for iSimangaliso’s Sodwana redevelopment

iSimangaliso’s Sodwana Bay section on the Kwazulu-Natal north coastline is scheduled for a facelift in the next 24 months.

The upgrades‚ which will cost approximately R72 million‚ include a new visitor reception and gate complex‚ new parking‚ new craft markets‚ and new recreational areas for day visitors.

According to the park’s management‚ the Sodwana Bay section of the park is an integral and highly valued part of iSimangaliso. It contains some of the rarest forest types and species in the country and is a vibrant and exciting tourism destination for beach lovers‚ divers and fishermen.

Part of iSimangaliso’s mandate‚ management says‚ is to conserve and develop the park in line with leading conservation and sustainability practices. Given the sensitive nature of the ecological processes at work within the Sodwana Bay section of the park and highly dynamic intertidal and coastal dune cordon‚ a number of specialist studies were commissioned to better understand the dynamics of this area with a view to enhancing and protecting ecological functionality and promoting economic development.

Following these extensive specialist studies on all aspects of ecological and other impacts‚ a conceptual master plan for Sodwana Bay has been prepared. This includes some R11 million for a new entrance gate complex‚ R50 million for visitor facilities and ecological rehabilitation and around R10 million for road upgrades.

According to the park’s management‚ the facelift will also require the removal of structures that are inappropriate or ‘not fit for purpose’‚ including those within the estuarine basin‚ and those that compromise the ecology and 'sense of place'‚ one of the outstanding universal values for which iSimangaliso was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999.

Central to the redevelopment is the systematic removal of alien plants to restore dune functioning coupled with rehabilitation and promotion of the recovery/growth of indigenous vegetation on the primary dune.

The development and construction phase of the upgrades is expected to create at least 164 jobs‚ conservatively valued at R7 million. Additional new permanent jobs will be created during the operational phase of which 70% will go to previously disadvantaged individuals residing adjacent to the park‚ management says.

RDM News Wire.