Dear Nanette
Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC) wish to lodge a strong objection to the TEM/ MRC/ Xolco proposal to mine dunes along the Wild Coast.
Our opinion is based on the following:-
SWC do not believe this project complies with the notion of sustainable development, nor do we believe it is in the best economic or social development interests of the region.
SWC believes there are serious flaws in the public participation process due to incomplete studies and insufficient data, which, given the unrealistic time frames of the project, compromise the public’s access to relevant information and the public ability to make informed comment about the project prior to the Record of Decision.
The situation calls for the precautionary principle to be applied, as the mining will take place within the heart of the Pondoland Centre of Endemism, an internationally recognised botanical hotspot which has been identified as a key area in meeting South Africa’s international obligations to conserve biodiversity as determined by the Bonn Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity. [Read more...]
Posted on November 23rd, 2007 by Louis
Filed under: SWC Comments | 4 Comments »
RE: Environment minister may lose power.
Please note the alarming report about proposed amendments to Environmental regulations which could have serious repercussions for the Wild Coast as well as the South African environment as a whole, as reported in the Mercury article below.
Actions you can take on this matter:
SWC call upon anyone with an interest in the matter to respond in all urgency
(no later than 22 August) and call for a revision on the bill and amendment, and a process of due public consultation before adoption, by sending objections to the amendment to the following:
d.zoekop@lando.co.za
mariette@acmegraphics.co.za
If you would like an e- copy of the bill, please contact:
Val Payn
SWC communications
Box 44
Harding
Tel 082 4416961
valpayn@gmail.com
Posted on August 21st, 2007 by admin
Filed under: SWC Comments | 1 Comment »
2 -5 -2007
While SWC welcomes the fact that the FSR admits to a need to further investigate deviations to the SANRAL ‘preferred’ route that would pose less of an environmental risk, and welcomes the call for more specialist studies in numerous fields, SWC cannot in any justification condone the report or its recommendations.
SWC are of the opinion that the report does very little to address major legitimate public concerns raised in the last EIA or in the Draft Scoping Report, and that the report is so full of contradictions and inconsistencies that it can hardly be taken seriously, and resembles more a poor quality justification process for SANRAL’s preferred route than a legitimate and neutral assessment of whether another EIA conducted along what is basically the same route would serve the best interests of the region or of state financial expenditure. SWC are of the opinion that unless the fundamental planning flaw that underlies the whole project is addressed (namely the lack of any regional development plan that supports the need for a toll road or major new highway through the Pondoland Centre of Endemism) a new EIA as outlined by the FSR would merely be an renewed process of covering old ground and hence would amount to nothing more than an attempt to plaster ‘cracks in a wall’, when it is ‘faulty foundations’ that need attention. [Read more...]
Posted on May 3rd, 2007 by admin
Filed under: SWC Comments | No Comments »
N2 TOLL ROAD -COMMENTS -DRAFT SCOPING REPORT.
SAVE THE WILD COAST CAMPAIGN-MEMBERS COMMENTS.
Download this article as a printable PDF :
N2 TOLL ROAD- SWC MEMBERS COMMENTS – DRAFT SCOPING REPORT.
In compiling these comments, SWC makes reference to the Independent Review of the Record of Decision issued by the DEAT in 2005 which clearly highlighted the shortcoming of the previous EIA. While the previous EIA was overturned on the basis of lack of independence, the Independent Review listed numerous other shortcomings in the previous EIA process, any of which, individually or collectively, could also have been legitimate reasons for the EIA being turned down. One therefore has to ask, to what extent does the current DSR process provide a basis for the new EIA to overcome the shortcomings inherent in the previous EIA? [Read more...]
Posted on April 11th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: SWC Comments | No Comments »
