Sea Level Rise a Threat to the Garden Route

The Garden Route District Coastal Management Programme for the period 2025/2026 – 2030/2031 has been adopted by the Garden Route District Municipality. Some of the key focus points amongst others are climate change and erosion defence, specifically sea-level rises (estimated between 20cm and 1.0m by 2100), coastal storm surges, and shoreline erosion through adaptive spatial planning and nature-based solutions. This is particularly pertinent having earlier in the year (May) seen the damage caused by storm surges along the entire Garden Route, especially Dias Beach, Mossel Bay.

Around the same time researchers at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Oceanography were also issuing a warning. They had just released the findings of a groundbreaking study that makes for sobering reading.