Five ponds that have taken a back seat over the years are coming back to life – and attracting plenty of it – as Sardinia Bay Golf & Wildlife Estate’s final phase comes online.
The second home in the fourth stage is now under construction, prompting the decision to resurrect the quintet of water features.
The ponds have seen little activity outside of roaming wildlife since this section of the property has been largely unused until recently.
The man-made installations are lined with plastic and covered by a layer of clay, but, as time went by, the materials became weaker, making it easier for animals’ hooves to punch holes in the waterproofing.
Eventually the features did not fill with water anymore.
While two of the reservoirs are already operational, the remaining three need some TLC and a dose of a product called Damit Dam Sealer to return to their former glory.
This clever invention takes the form of a powder that expands in water.
Once placed on the surface, it transforms into a gel that “sinks” to the bottom of the feature, filling all the cracks it encounters.
Estate manager Hugh Wiblin is hoping this will do the trick in terms of getting all five ponds up and running. The functioning ones are thriving, he says.
Wiblin has already relocated tilapia fish from other ponds on the estate to the fourth-phase installations.
“I’m quite surprised how big the fish are,” he admits. “Some are bigger than 30 centimetres and weigh at least a kilogramme.
“I’m very happy to see that. There are thousands.”
Sards’s resident animals have historically favoured the area where the last-phase homes are being built but have been noticeably scarcer due to the ongoing construction work.
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However, the pair of ponds is now attracting bushbuck that lap at the refreshing waters.
“You see their spoor there quite a lot. Hopefully more animals will go there to drink,” Wiblin says.
Like the other ponds, the revived features serve an evaporation function by getting rid of excess treated sewage water.
A lot of the grey water had previously been used to irrigate the golf course but with the arrival of a new borehole in December far less is needed.
Wiblin and his team recently cleaned all the ponds on the property, giving passersby a much clearer view of the water. Not all reeds were removed as they are an essential part of the filtration process.
The estate’s ponds were first introduced in 2018 to capture rain, store grey water for irrigation and create a natural environment for species to live.
The idea was to establish habitats not only for buck and birds but also lizards, frogs and insects. Before then they had been conspicuous by their absence due to Sards not having many rocks.
To this end the initiative has been an overwhelming success, much to the delight of those who love all creatures great and small.