Cape Town -
Blikkiesdorp residents have slammed plans to realign the runway at Cape Town International
Airport because they are worried that they might be adversely affected and face forced removals.
They have slated the Airports Company SA (Acsa) and the City of Cape Town for not “meaningfully consulting” them and not making public a memorandum of agreement between the city and Acsa, which they allege includes a plan to move some residents to an undisclosed location.
This weekend, the Joint Committee of Blikkiesdorp issued a statement expressing concern over how the environmental impact assessment was conducted.
“We, the people who live in Blikkiesdorp in Delft note that the Airports Company South Africa is planning to re-align a runway, and to do that they have commissioned SRK Consulting… to do an environmental impact assessment of the development,” said Jerome Daniels, the committee’s chairman.
“We are unhappy this process has not included consideration of us and, therefore, did not constitute meaningful engagement. The consultants said they were told not to consider us, because we are going to be moved, but the City of Cape Town won’t tell us where or when we will be moved.”
The committee is demanding an inclusive environmental impact assessment process, as well as the release of the memorandum of agreement signed in February between Acsa and the city.
Committee members Andrew Badenhorst and Estelle Rhode said noise pollution was not their biggest concern. They were more worried about the threat of being relocated and the dust that would be caused by the expansion of the airport.
“The noise is not much of a problem because we are already living with that. We are mostly concerned about our health and what the construction and the expansion will mean for us.
“We already live in filth and many of us suffer from meningitis, asthma, TB and so on.
“Already we have stayed here too long. We were meant to stay here for six months; we are now more than seven years in Blikkiesdorp.”
Rhode said residents had not been adequately consulted, a claim the city denies.
“We only found out about the expansion plans on Friday but found that the discussions had been ongoing for the past three years.
“They told us they had been in talks with the councillors in the area but nobody from Blikkiesdorp knew anything about the expansion until Friday, as there has been no proper engagement on the issue because we were never consulted,” Rhode said.
The committee has enlisted the help of the Right2Know Campaign to press the city to release documents for the community to scrutinise, so they could make informed decisions.
“We have taken a decision to support the Blikkiesdorp residents because the documents containing the agreement between Acsa and the City of Cape Town are absolutely critical for the community to fully understand what the city’s plans are.
“This will also assist this community in preparing meaningful comment on the environmental assessment,” said Vinola Makan of Right2Know.
Chris Dalgliesh, project director for SRK Consulting, said the company had not been given the memorandum.
“That agreement is between Acsa and the city and we have not seen it,” Dalgliesh said.
“We were commissioned by Acsa to conduct an environmental impact assessment on the realignment of the runway and we found there would be quite a significant noise level, which could affect approximately 400 000 people, because the noise levels will be above the recommended guidelines for residential areas,” he said.
How to mitigate this noise was “the million-dollar question” as it would be “quite difficult to fix”.
Dalgliesh added relocation of residents “was not part of the terms of reference” for the environmental assessment and SRK did not recommend relocating people who live in Blikkiesdorp, Freedom Farm or Malawi Camp.
Mayoral committee member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen said it was not true that the city had not consulted the Blikkiesdorp community.
“We have been engaging and consulting with the Blikkiesdorp community on an on-going basis.”
She had “not seen the final signed memorandum” and it was up to the mayor’s office to publicise the agreement.
Acsa spokeswoman Deborah Francis said this was just the beginning of a process. For the runway realignment plans to be realised “a variety of approvals still need to take place”.
The current public consultation phase began on March 25 and was due to end this week.
“There were a variety of communities around the airport that we had to touch base with,” Francis said.
The company had consulted all the necessary authorities on their plans for the area, including the city, because some of the land involved was owned by the city, some by the province and some by companies and private individuals.
“Acsa is a very responsible company and we are going through due diligence and due process to determine what is best for everyone,” Francis said
She was not in a position to provide information about the memorandum of agreement with the city.
Sunday Tribune