Page 41 - SilverLakes_Issue 4_2022

NATURE

hastily erected homes and ad hoc small completed, in 2000, Mpumalanga was hit by I have been re-reading Stevenson-
industries – just a dozen kilometres from the Millennium Flood, which was said to be a Hamilton’s book, South African Eden. In it
Kruger Park. “one in 100 years flood”. he gives an account of how, when he was
living at Skukuza not long after World War
The good thing about the Sabie River itself Some hydrologists believe that floods of II, he was told that certain farmers were
is that it springs in the wild, generally this magnitude are more common than is to be allowed to graze sheep in his Sabi
unpolluted mountains and flows through realised. Months after the Millennium Flood, Game Reserve and around Pretoriuskop
many rapids which are excellent for an old staff member at Skukuza pointed and that, because of the presence of
oxygenating the water and, therefore, for out a mark painted by Lieutenant-Colonel predators, they could carry guns.
breaking down some of the pollutants. Stevenson-Hamilton, Kruger’s first warden,
on the Selati railway bridge that spans the This dismayed Stevenson-Hamilton, for
And, fortunately, the Sabie is not, so far, Sabie at Skukuza. The mark showed the height farmers had been clamouring for the
losing a critical amount of water to thirsty of a flood in 1950. There was little difference reserve to be opened up for hunting. For a
pine and eucalyptus plantations. However, between the two levels. Later, somebody time, sheep grazed there and Stevenson-
in 1999, the Department of Water Affairs recorded that Stevenson-Hamilton, in 1950, Hamilton, in trying to hold off the pressure
completed the Injaka Dam on the Marite was shown a landmark by a Shangaan staff of the hunting lobby, suggested the
River, a tributary of the Sabie, ostensibly member who recalled a flood reaching there reserve be allowed to make money by
‘for irrigation’, But it also provides water in 1900 – a flood that appeared to be as high capturing young animals for zoos here and
for resorts that have since developed as the Millenium Flood. overseas. In those days, soon after World
around it and for Bushbuckridge itself – a War I (1918), giraffe landed in England
municipality that is growing as steadily as Last year again saw a memorable flood along would fetch ₤1000 and a hippo would
Sabie and Hazyview. the Sabie. fetch ₤600.

At the end of the 20 century it was found The Sabie is by far the most biologically, In fact, out of desperation, for a time
th
that, of the seven rivers that cross Kruger hydrologically and geomorphically the warden did just that, even though
Park from west to east, all had, in time researched river in South Africa. It was he abhorred having to compromise the
of drought, dried up – all, that is, except monitored intensively during the Rivers conservation ethic. He hoped a time
the Sabie. Uniquely, the Sabie has never Research Programme by scores of scientists would come when the government
stopped flowing. If ever it does, it would be in various disciplines and, for years, updated would proclaim the Sabi Game Reserve a
nothing less than a national tragedy. data was sent to about 100 scientists who had national park.
developed a more than academic interest in
It was partly this threat that, in 1998, the health of the Sabie River. That’s exactly what happened. In 1926,
caused National Parks to launch the Kruger the government took over the Sabi Game
National Park Rivers Research Programme – Kruger Park has continued facilitating Reserve and the Shingwedzi Reserve
the largest and most comprehensive multi- seminars and appraisal meetings to make further to the north. The first tourists
disciplinary river research programme ever sure that what is happening and what is arrived at the new ‘national park’ in 1927.
undertaken in South Africa. planned for the Sabie River supports its vision The gap between the two protected areas
for South Africa’s flagship tourist attraction. was filled in 1944, when Eileen Orpen
The 10 years of seminars produced vital Its vision has been described as follows: “To bought seven farms and donated them to
new data – but too late to influence maintain biodiversity in all its natural facets the government.
the building of the Injaka Dam, whose and fluxes and to provide human benefits
impoundment was completed the following . . . in a manner which detracts as little as Stevenson-Hamilton retired as the park’s
year and whose impact will take years to possible from the wilderness qualities of the first warden 20 years later. He died, aged
assess. In fact, directly after the dam was Kruger National Park.” 90, in White River in 1957.

The Lower Sabie near Skukuza A typical scene along the Lower Sabie road

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