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Rob Munro
Posts:39
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| 10/11/2008 10:22 AM |
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The Editor
25 March 2008
Weslander Attention: Alida Buckle
BAJA SARDINIA NOW RENAMED SHARK BAY
Those of us who were able to motivate ourselves once again to make yet
further inputs before the closing date of 29 September in the interminable
saga of the development of Klein Oostewal, the erstwhile Baja Sardinia now
delicately renamed the Shark Bay development proposal would have noticed
that not much has changed. Indeed the name change notwithstanding, it's all
business as usual just under a different signboard! Having been sent by
Province back to the drawing board to do a proper EIA as required by the
National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), the present Scoping Report
regrettably offers much of the same and still falls far short of the mark.
In fact it attempts to do little more than dust off the earlier material
generated in the initial flawed process and resubmit it in a new guise.
Clearly the prospective developer, despite ongoing community opposition and
opposition from no lesser quarters than the West Coast Biosphere Reserve,
SANParks and the South African National Parks Trust and other professionals
and conservationists is determined to press on notwithstanding and to turn a
quick buck on what in the words of SANParks in a recent letter to the
Saldanha Bay Municipality was described as land of strategic "global"
conservation significance in the context of the Langebaan lagoon and
biosphere. SANParks has currently commissioned a valuation with a view to
acquiring the land for conservation and the development of suitable low-key
public beach amenities without the associated residential development that
blights the Baja Sardinia proposal, and survives in equal measure in the
"latest" Shark Bay proposal. Although NEMA requires that viable alternative
"non-development" options shall be presented for the purpose of the EIA such
options are still not presented in the revised Draft Scoping Report. Any
"assessment" that may follow is thus not worth the paper it is written on
since the basis of comparison is absent.
The prospective developer just does not get it, does he? We have lost
confidence in the objectivity of the entire process and indeed have
petitioned Province as the Competent Authority accordingly. It is a great
pity that the prospective developer who continues to profess to being a
community benefactor should continue in this vein. When challenged by the
Langebaan Action Group and by SANParks at a meeting at Kirstenbosch on 15
September with the alternative of showing his goodwill by desisting from his
present course and/or donating land to the Park or at least making it
available on favourable terms for conservation, he declined. The reason? He
stands to make a lot of money if Baja Sardinia/Shark Bay is approved, if
necessary at the expense of the strategic environmental integrity of the
Langebaan biosphere, local opinion and the long term interests of the local
community. The saga continues. Visit the website at www.savesharkbay.org and
stay informed to support us.
Johan Ackron: Convener: Langebaan Action Group |
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