Page 22 - FWG_Issue 2_March_2022

Nature

Water Dikkop at bird-rich Panic Dam in the Sabie-Sand basin Typical scene along the Lower Sabie road
THE SABIE RIVER

B Y JAMES CLARKE, PHO T OGR APHS B Y MARY BRO ADLEY
The most biologically diverse river in southern Africa.

here’s a river in Mpumalanga, a Its species of fish alone total 47. Its frog life Hazyview is becoming overwhelmed by
mere 230km long, that is unique – is also remarkable and so is its variety of hastily erected homes and ad hoc small
unique not just in South Africa, but birds. I’d guess at more than 400 species of industries – just a dozen kilometres from
Tin the world. birds including what birders nowadays try Kruger Park.
to spot – the ‘Big Six’. These are the lappet-
It is called the Sabie and it rises 2 000 or so faced vulture, ground hornbill, Pel’s fishing The good thing about the Sabie River
metres up in Mpumalanga’s Drakensberg owl, the saddle-billed stork, martial eagle itself is that it springs in the wild, generally
Escarpment. It then drops rapidly to the and Kori bustard. unpolluted mountains and flows through
Lowveld after racing through the small but many rapids which are excellent for
wildly growing town of Sabie and, 50km Its variety of mammals is a world wonder oxygenating the water and, therefore
on, through Hazyview and into Kruger and includes the original ‘Big Five’ – breaking down some of the pollutants.
National Park. From there, it crosses into elephant, black rhino, Cape buffalo, lion,
Mozambique, to be swallowed up by the and leopard – and there’s 19 species of And, fortunately, the Sabie is not, so far,
Inkomati River, which empties into the antelope plus a bewildering variety of losing a critical amount of water to thirsty
Indian Ocean. smaller mammals. pine and eucalyptus plantations. However,
in 1999, the Department of Water Affairs
Biologically, considering the Sabie’s modest The Sabie-Sand River Basin (the Sand River completed the Injaka Dam on the Marite
length, it is probably the richest stretch of merges with the Sabie in the park) covers River, a tributary of the Sabie, ostensibly
river on the planet. The Amazon has nothing 7 000 square kilometres including the ‘for irrigation’ but it also provides water
to compare with the Sabie’s wildlife in and Sabi Sands Game Reserve and four smaller for resorts that have since developed
out of the water. reserves on Kruger’s western flank. around it and for Bushbuckridge itself – a
municipality that is growing as steadily as
Almost half the river’s length is in Kruger A big concern is what is happening west of Sabie and Hazyview.
Park. these reserves.
At the end of the 20th century it was found
The town of Sabie has allowed its sewerage that, of the seven rivers than cross Kruger
plant to deteriorate and pollute the river. Park from west to east, all had, in time

The Lower Sabie near Skukuza

Fourways Gardens • 20 • March 2022