Beach over troubled waters

Besides one or two exceptions, they were found to be in a general state of neglect and disrepair.

ORIENT BEACH:

Two reeking, stagnant pools greet visitors to the Orient complex that once boasted upmarket restaurants with a seaview.

When the Dispatch visited yesterday, the ponds were filled with soupy water dotted with trash.

At the beach itself, a supertube pool was in a similar, neglected condition, yet the rusty gate leading to the decrepit facility was standing open, posing a danger to small children.

Stands above the beach featured peeling paint and bits of rubble lay at the bottom of the main staircase leading to the sand.

A BCM employee who noticed the Saturday Dispatch taking photographs asked the journalist whether she had paid to enter the complex and demanded proof of payment.

EASTERN BEACH:

Garbage choked the Blind River where it flowed onto the beach.

At the dilapidated, graffiti-adorned ablution block where outside showers now consist of metre-high poles and where toilets lack seats, BCM employees said they had been told a “renovation” which would include facilities for the disabled was imminent.

For the meantime, the uninviting ablutions are dark and foreboding and surrounded with a stench of urine, broken paving and an informal car wash alongside the filthy river.

NAHOON BEACH:

Although the lifesavers shack area of this world-renowned beach is in good condition with working showers and rubbish bins, the ablution block behind the lifesavers building is in a dodgy area where men were washing taxis.

The women’s facility had rusty basins and showers consisting of curved pipes attached to the facebrick wall.

Surfer Andrew Carter was weeding the path leading to the beach to rid it of “devil thorns”, a pastime he carries out regularly.

BONZA BAY:

There was little sign of the orange graffiti that had been scrawled all over the walkway to the beach calling on people to not pay car guards.

Broken cement benches had been dismantled and were lying in a pile near the deserted kiosk. On a positive note, a team of plumbers told the Dispatch they were replacing toilets, showers and tiles in the public toilets and those in the lifesavers shack.

GONUBIE:

A pile of sand clogs the entrance to the parking at the former Blue Flag beach.

Substantial clumps of sand also shroud the pavement and gutters adjoining the beach, while the lifesaver shack roof appears to have a serious rust problem.

There are missing information signs and a wheelchair ramp to the beach was covered in sand.

The boardwalk is in need of urgent attention.

Slats creak underfoot, banisters are brittle and splintered and – most alarmingly – missing vertical droppers spell danger to small children who could plummet through gaps to the rocks below.

One of the stairways leading down the main beach has slid away from the main structure and has been barricaded with a crisscross of droppers.

At the tidal pool a wall has toppled over onto the beach.

“It is sad that building up to the festive season that nothing has been done yet,” said Settlers Retirement Home resident Neil Pohlman. “It is shocking that no maintenance has been done.”

BCM did not respond to queries by the time of writing.