Was infamous sandbar to blame?

There is a sneaking suspicion that the MV ER Elsf leth may have been a victim of the modern-day version of the infamous old sandbar, which for over a century has blocked the entrance to the Durban Bay and precluded the building of the harbour. The sandbar was (and still is) the result of the littoral drift, caused by the north-bound inshore current, the prevailing wind direction (SE) and the swell – resulting in sand moving north-north-westward along the East African coast. It is this littoral drift that curls around the end of the Bluff at Durban port, dumping vast quantities of sand across the channel. Dredging eventually conquered the problem of the sandbar over a century ago. And, indeed, it has been continual dredging and the use of the Durban Municipality’s sandpumping facility on the north breakwater that has kept the sandbar from again building up. The consensus among our contacts is that, without continual depth-sounding and an ongoing dredging programme, the authority is guilty of allowing an uncontrolled build-up of sediment both within the port and around the entrance channel. Liable, they added, for reducing the status of the Port of Durban from a safe haven to that of a “bad port”. CAPTION Transnet National Ports Authority’s Italeni grab hopper dredger is currently dredging the Port of Maputo.