Tonga Beach Lodge comes to GSLWP

By Staffer, GSLWP

The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Authority has begun to deliver on its biggest challenge by clinching an investment deal with a major lodge company in the construction of the new Tonga Beach Lodge to the north of Lake Sibaya.
Brett Gehren, director of the company Isibindi Africa, which is developing the new lodge, says he and the Mabibi community have been waiting for five years for lodge to go ahead.
`Tourism is a very sustainable industry and is the way to go with regard to creating jobs in the region, he says.
It is estimated that the Tonga Beach Lodge, located on the coast in the Mabibi section of the park, will create 40 temporary jobs in the construction phase and a further 23 direct permanent jobs when the lodge comes on stream.

The new lodge will have many extra spin-offs for residents of Mabibi creating work for a number of small businesses which will be asked to supply the lodge with goods and services such as crafts and cultural performances.
In addition, the lodge will provide training and skills development for staff as well as for members of small businesses taking part in the construction of the lodge and providing it with services.
Typically developments must be light in structure, with muted lighting, and state of the art environmentally friendly waste management systems. The lodge developer is required to put in place an environmental management system against which they will be monitored and, if necessary, sanctioned for environmentally inappropriate actions.

The investment at Mabibi thus begins to fulfill government’s promise that it would use `nature tourism’ to create jobs and economic growth in the St Lucia Wetland Park.
`Tourism has been called the industry without smokestacks and one that can promote a natural form of wealth redistribution. This is so but it does not do this automatically. The Authority has put measures in place to ensure this as part of a major investment drive currently underway”, says Terri Castis Commercial Director from the St Lucia Wetlands Authority .
Says Induna Mdletshe from the Mabibi community: `We started the process in 1996 and then we had problems. The development was not accepted by the authorities.
U`ntil the new Wetlands Authority came in 2002 nothing happened with our tourism development. There is a great need for development at Mabibi as there are no industries and the youth are unemployed.
`We need this development so that the young people can get jobs to support their families.’
The new tourism investment is closely in line with the principles of sustainable development discussed when government leaders and NGO members met in Johannesburg last year at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
This is because the investments create jobs and new forms of income for some of the poorest families in the country while at the same time not destroying the landscape and the natural wealth that exists in the area where the lodges will be built.
And this is just a start.
The St Lucia Wetland Park Authority will shortly announce the companies and mandatory community partners that have qualified, through an open tender process, to build further new tourism lodges and hotels in the park.

More than 10 years ago Nelson Mandela was one among thousands of South Africans who signed a petition to save the Eastern Shores from being dredge mined. Then his government, which came to power after the country’s first democratic elections, accepted the recommendations of a panel headed by Judge RN Leon that had been appointed to investigate the acceptability of mining on the dunes of the park.
Judge Leon recommended in his report in 1994 that the area should be proclaimed a national park and an independent management Authority established. He also said that the park should acquire World Heritage status.

Restitution
He added there should be restitution for people who were removed from the Eastern Shores of Lake St Lucia in the apartheid era of a type that ensures that `local communities who live in the area and those who have been displaced from the area, have a significant role in the management of the area and derive direct economic and other benefits therefrom.’
All of these recommendations are now being implemented. The Authority has developed and `packaged’ a number of sites for the development of new lodges and hotels in the area.

Forecasts

According to forecasts by resource economist Geert Creemers who undertook work for the Authority, the additional revenue generated in the province by the roll-out of the new tourism development will pass the R300m-a-year mark by 2008. This is about nine times the annual revenue from existing tourism operations in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park.
And all of this is occurring on a planned and controlled basis, and always within carefully defined environmental constraints and carrying-capacity limits in each development node – all in strict compliance with the international standards of sustainable development.
`The Authority has set in place a number of mechanisms and regulations to ensure that these developments do not cause damage to the environment of St Lucia and encourage employment as well as productive economic opportunities for the residents of region,’ adds Castis.

St Lucia now malaria free

Dr Brian Sharp, Malaria Research Programme, Medical Research Council

In October of 1999 the Lubombo Malaria Control programme was launched as part of the Lubombo SDI initiative. It is the first collaborative regional malaria control project in Africa. It aims to reduce the threat of malaria in Mozambique especially, as well as the high-risk areas of Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal. Malaria is a killer disease that stands in the way of health and development.
Dr Brian Sharp, director of the Malaria Research Programme of the Medical Research Council, says that the regional control programmes have dramatically reduced the rate of disease in the LSDI area. In the 2001/2002 season malaria prevalence decreased by 70% in Mozambique and malaria incidence by 64% in Swaziland and by a staggering 91% in KwaZulu-Natal. It has had a positive impact on socio-economic development in the region, and represents a huge improvement in the quality of life of local residents. It has rolled malaria back from St Lucia and now extends to the Kruger National Park - two of South Africa's major tourist destinations. The map shows the main malaria impacted areas to be in eastern Swaziland and Mpumalanga.

Methods used in the Malaria Control programme
Houses and tourism facilities were sprayed with effective insecticides under strict supervision to control mosquitoes. The programme also provides for increased primary health care service, and has a strong research and implementation component towards effective treatment in the region.

Insecticides used to kill mosquitoes
Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal are using DDT and synthetic pyrethroids in their house spraying programmes. Bendiocarb is being used in southern Mozambique. The choice of insecticide is based largely on effectiveness, bearing in mind the resistance profile of the target vector mosquito species, with ongoing research towards informing policy.