Irrigation run-off from a golf course has been blamed for destroying vital archaelogical records of the ancestry of modern humankind and of the effects of climate change over hundreds of thousands of years.
Lawyers for the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa applied to the Cape High Court this week for an urgent interdict ordering the Pinnacle Point Beach & Golf Club development to stop watering the golf course immediately.
Scientists said in affidavits that caves at Pinnacle Point, near Mossel Bay, were of international importance because they contained evidence of the earliest presence of modern humans on the planet.
This evidence was being lost, not only because water from the golf course was seeping into the caves and eroding the archaeological material, but because the water contained destructive chemicals.
”Information found in the caves offers explanations about our origins as a species and carries weight as to where we come from, how we evolved and, to some extent, helps us understand who we are,” said Antonieta Jerardino, a marine research specialist and archaeologist at the South African Heritage Resources Agency.
One of the main discoveries was the oldest evidence of the use of marine resources. ”This explains the survival of people in Africa at a time when glacial conditions dominated, between 180Â 000 and 135Â 000 years ago,” she said.
”Due to arid conditions in much of the interior — people were forced to find refuge where water and resources were more plentiful and one of the places where they found refuge was along the south coast of southern Africa.” These early modern humans relied on shellfish, which enabled them to migrate to New Guinea and Australia.
Peter Nilssen, director of the Pinnacle Point archaeological research project, said the site held unique evidence of changes in climate and environment over several hundred thousand years.
”These and related studies are directly relevant to the current quest to resolve questions about global warming and changes in climates and environments,” he said.
Nilssen has been involved in the project since 1997 and noticed that the caves became wet after the start of golf course irrigation around April 2006. The water was first greenish, then a greenish-yellow and currently a dark yellow, ”the colour of rich urine. These colours must be caused by the chemicals the water contains,” he said.
”The damage happens every minute, every time a drop of water falls on to the material. We are losing important information by the day.”
The study of ancient archaeological material is the only way to find out about the origins of modern humans, said Professor Judith Sealy, head of the archaeology department at the University of Cape Town.
”There are no written records and no libraries [from those times]. The only place where the story of what it means to be human is recorded is in sites like this and there are very few of them.”
Pinnacle Point Resorts, the develoÂper of the golf course, has used the archaeological treasure trove to market the development and undertook to put in place mitigation measures such as sub-surface drainage and waterproof sheeting under the greens.
”Unfortunately, the plastic sheet was either too short or not laid — at all,” said Jerardino.
Sandbags were placed around the archaeological material and roof sheets were erected in the caves. ”These are temporary measures and are not sufficient,” she said.
Lance Kinnear, Pinnacle’s developÂment director, said it had complied with the conditions set out in the record of decision authorising the development and was working with the provincial department of environmental affairs and development planning to mitigate the effect of the development on the caves.
The golf course was central to the R3-billion development, which includes 500 residential units, 300 hotel rooms and employs more than 500 people, said Kinnear.
”The other elements owe their value to the existence and — ‘playability’ of the golf course,” he said.
If irrigation stops, the grass on the R150-million golf course will die, he said. ”The death of the grass would render the course unplayable and would put the course at very real risk of serious and potentially devastating erosion. Indeed, for all practical purposes, it will result in the course being destroyed.”