Membership and funds
Please renew your membership so that we can do the things that keep our Village in a beautiful condition. Not sure if you have renewed? Send an email to bushmansratepayers@gmail.com and we shall advise you. We have tendered for a contract to remove green refuse from our Villages and hope to supplement our income this way. It will still require of our volunteers to assist by collecting trailer loads of refuse and taking it to the industrial area, but it places us in a position to compensate them for their fuel when assisting us.
Brrag at work – cleaning up at Riversbend entrance
Tennis court
We have a ringfenced tennis court fund and urge users to place donations in the collection box at the club house. The nets have been taken in for repair but should be in place again quite soon. Donations with reference “tennis” are also welcome – see our website under banking for references.
Lonely times
Due to the Covid restrictions and risks, we have had no monthly get togethers nor any craft markets. But be sure that we are attending to the usual matters and have learnt a bit of Zooming as well.
Committee members
Welcome to the committee Wanda Nezar and we wish you a wonderful period of service to our community. We are still encouraging residents to avail yourself to serve on this pro-active and hardworking committee and assist with our many projects.
Easter weekend sunrise over the mouth.
Brrag at work: Gugu using building rubble to “repair” road verges until we get municipal action.
Brrag at work: Gugu clearing building rubble from the beach.
Water provision
Bushman’s River Mouth is situated in a fresh water scarce area and are reliant on Amatola Water to produce fresh water by extracting water from the dunes as well as from the River.
The water is processed by means of an osmosis process at the water plant situated in Bushman’s River. Kenton, Klipfontein and Marselle also receive their water from this water plant.
The demand for water has increased over the years and will continue to do so in future resulting from development in the area, more people settling permanently, leaks in the infrastructure, and the provision of water to Port Alfred and Alexandria during the drought times.
Increased production and maintenance challenges are experienced at the water works. BRRAG joined forces with other organisations (Kosra, Estuary Care, Chamber of Commerce and Ndlambe Municipality) to monitor and address challenges and shortcomings.
The water plant was expanded over the years in an effort to meet the demand of water for the area. Unfortunately, the development took place in an uncontrolled manner with no consultation with the community.
The impact on the community and on the environment must be addressed to ensure long-term sustainability and to mitigate the impact.
Examples of negative effects include:
- Unsightly water extraction points and infrastructure (pipes, cables, stones) on the River beach
- High concentrate brine water pumped into the River and surround
- Expansion of buildings and tanks
- Building materials and equipment on public areas
- Redundant infrastructure not removed (pipes, old pump stations)
- Noise and vibrations caused by the pumps
These and other matters were raised and are pursued on the joint consultation forums.
It is highly recommended that residents harvest rainwater by means of storage tanks to ensure water availability during breakdowns and periods of high demand, this will not only be beneficial for the owners but will also support the water infrastructure.
BRRAG will continue to support and influence the process to ensure responsible water is provided.
Road infrastructure
As in most of South African cities and towns, the road infrastructure in our town received very little maintenance over many years, which lead to the deterioration of our roads to a point where urgent action is required by Ndlambe Municipality.
Meetings were with the Municipal Manager and the Director of infrastructure to address the matter. Ndlambe was requested to provide BRRAG with a Road Plan to improve the roads, which will include repair of potholes, sealing of identified roads, repair of stretches of road, and replacing some road surfaces.
Short-term results were obtained with the repairing of some potholes.
BRRAG will continue with interaction and pressure to maintain and improve our road infrastructure.
