By Guy Rogers

An environmental storm has erupted over the R8,5-billion project to upgrade Port Elizabeth‘s Livingstone Hospital in line with 2010 World Cup requirements.

The Eastern Cape public works department, the agency driving the project, has cleared a swathe of wetland, a habitat protected by law on the Papenkuils River. The developer has also dug at least one drain into the vlei and has packed landfill into it, both activities prohibited by law unless a permit has been obtained.

The first phase of the project, due to be completed by 2010, includes the demolition of old buildings and the construction of trauma and out-patient units, and the first part of an oncology unit. The job is contracted out to the Malaysian company Ho Hup Construction, which is represented locally by ANC-aligned businessman Theunis Crous.

The department said it had permission from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality for the work presently under way, and there had been no need to apply for an environmental impact assessment as the Papenkuils was “a stormwater drain ... not really a river anymore”.

The municipality said the project “seems to have caused some damage”, however, and it was “engaging with public works to see what they are doing”. The provincial department of economic development and environmental affairs said on Friday it was concerned about the matter, and would be sending a team to the site today to investigate.

Questions were put to the Port Elizabeth office of the department of water affairs and forestry, the body in charge of overseeing South Africa‘s water law, 10 days ago. But the department said it was “still trying to identify the people responsible”.

This is despite the project notice board in front of the hospital listing the implementing agent, the engineers, the architects and the contractor, and despite the municipality‘s information – passed onto the department by The Herald last week, that public works was driving the project.

Regional senior public works manager Johan van Dyk said the present activity included the construction of a temporary road for rubble removal.

While water birds nesting in the wetland could have been disturbed by this activity, he conceded, the reed bed was “overgrown” and caused water to accumulate dangerously during heavy rains. A gabion wall also had to be built and this necessitated digging a drain into the wetland, he said.

He added that the department nevertheless “does not want to step on toes”.

The development of a new trauma unit for Livingstone is a particular focus of the project because it is a prerequisite for the 2010 World Cup. Van Dyk said the project was “behind” in terms of the 2010 deadline.

The director of the conservation NGO Wildline, Arnold Slabbert, said he had seen two drains, not one, dug into the wetland, before pipes were laid and they were covered up.

He said he had long kept an eye on the site because it was home to abundant bird life, including a pair of marsh harriers, which were becoming increasingly rare as their vlei habitat dwindled.

Wetlands were important because they acted as natural water purifiers in rivers and soaked up excess water, controlling floods and releasing it in times of drought. “The government should be setting the example not looking for ways to avoid complying with its own laws,” Slabbert said.

Source: The Herald