The weather co-operated, the river quality monitoring intensity was stepped up and the two main municipalities  (Msunduzi and eThekwini) pulled out the stops to get their sewer systems in order.  The result was possibly the best water quality we have had a on a Dusi in the last 10 years.

Below is the schematic from Steve Terry of Umgeni Water showing the water quality that was measured on the actual race days (21, 22 and 23 January).  Blue is Steve’s colour code for “Excellent quality for canoeing” -  what a beautiful picture this makes!

The senior managers from the Msunduzi Municipality’s sewer maintenance section attended the pre-race “Officials and Helpers” dinner at the Natal Canoe Club on the evening of Tuesday 19th January, and were publicly singled out by Dusi Chairman Cameron McKenzie for the additional effort they had put in to make this possible.  Thokozani Maseko, head of Water and Sanitation and Acting Deputy Municipal Manager said to me, “I wish every day was Dusi Day.  Now that we have got the river like this, we need to keep it like this”.  And we can all say “Amen” to that.  We are by no means out of the woods yet, but there is hope.

DUCT will be surveying the Dusi paddlers over the next few weeks to check how many experienced symptoms of Dusi Guts either during or after the race, and we will report back via the KNCU and CSA newsletters, and via our website.

There is still heaps of work to do on and around the rivers of course.  For one thing, although the hyacinth and pistia was not as bad as in 2009, there is still far too much of it in the rivers.  We will see what we can do in the year ahead to get that better controlled. 

Congratulations, commiserations and thanks.

Congratulations to Steve Cohen, Chairman of our Durban DUCT Committee, on cracking a Dusi gold medal with his partner Shaun Griffin.  Not bad for an old man, Steve.   Other DUCT committee members who made it to Durban, but not so fast, were Ian Bailey, Colin Everson, Trevor Gorven and myself.  Liz Taylor, Chairman of DUCT’s very active Howick committee, did the race by proxy through her husband and son, Jim and David.

Commiserations to our manager Andrew Booth and his partner Rob Levinson.  After having the very bad luck to wrap their K2 in the A batch melee at the bottom of Ernie Pearce weir, Rob fractured his ankle on the Campbell’s portage, so that was race over for them.   Rob and Andrew were in the hunt for a silver and had been putting in the training, so this was tough (and it would have been Andrew’s 10th finish too – eish!).  Not wishing to pass up on an opportunity to enjoy the water in the river, Andrew completed the race unofficially in his K1 anyway.

And finally a big thanks to Andrew King and Devlin Fogg, the duo who portaged their boat the entire distance to Durban to raise awareness of DUCT’s work.  The publicity they raised for us was priceless.  This was their own initiative, and we were delighted to be singled out by them for support.  Their basic message was – the rivers are under threat, so let’s all get involved and help in whatever way we can.  We can make a difference.

David Still
DUCT Chairman
25 January 2010