Durban - City engineers and a private contractor, Suntech, have reacted swiftly to the threat of sand erosion on the North Beach promenade and lifeguard tower.
Since Friday, sand has been pumped from a dredger to the affected beaches.
Engineers had fitted a pipe to the dredger anchored a few kilometres offshore.
The sand is then pumped from the dredger into the pipe which has an outlet on one of the affected beaches.
Hundreds of curious onlookers took photographs and filmed the sand replenishment operation yesterday.
A front-end pay loader and two excavators consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform levelled the sand dumped on the beach from the outlet pipe.
Sand replenishment on one portion of the beach, the size of a football field, had already reached the level of the promenade.
On Wednesday the sand would be filled under and around the tower, piers and near the promenade
Tozi Mthethwa, municipal spokesperson, said the city’s engineering unit’s coastal, stormwater and catchment management (CSCM) department closed off the Bay of Plenty and Dairy Beach to allow for sand pumping operations.
This would continue, she said, for the next three weeks.
Greg Evans, head of the engineering unit, said sand from south of the harbour was dredged and supplied to Durban’s central beaches.
READ: Sand erosion threatens Durban's North Beach
Durban central beaches are artificially created by sand pumping operations undertaken by the CSCM department.
Due to the new Transnet sand transfer station not being in operation, there was a severe shortage of sand on the beaches.
Last week, the Daily News reported the danger this posed and possible collapse of the North Beach lifeguard tower.
The tower was severely undermined, leaving the concrete platform suspended in mid-air.
A considerable amount of sand had been pumped on to the beach by Wednesday.