National
Office
Howick
3290
Website:
www.wildlifesociety.org.za
SUBMISSION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON
ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM
On the
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT:
INTEGRATED COASTAL MANAGEMENT
BILL (B40-2007)
This submission is made by the Wildlife and
Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA)
Submitted by:
Andy Gubb
Regional Manager: WESSA
TOKAI
7966
16
November 2007
This comment on the proposed National Environmental
Management: Integrated Coastal Management Bill 40-2007, (the Bill) is by WESSA,
a national, membership-based, environmental NGO whose mission is, "To
promote public participation in caring for the Earth".
1.
INTRODUCTION
The Integrated Coastal Management
Bill has been carefully and thoroughly drafted.
The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) fully supports
the integrated management of the coastal zone and believes that the Bill
supports this objective. WESSA notes
that the purpose of the Bill has changed significantly and much more closely
mirrors the intention of White Paper on Sustainable Coastal Development in
2.
GENERAL COMMENT
WESSA acknowledges that it is
difficult to deal with coastal development without infringing on individual
property rights, but believes that the Bill should have attempted to deal more
comprehensively with curbing the rampant development of private land that is
within the coastal zone and within urban areas.
Large areas of
The Bill deals comprehensively with
a wide range of coastal issues, including the discharge of waste into coastal
waters. Mining in the coastal zone,
including mining of dunes and mining on the seabed, is one of the most
destructive human activities. WESSA
would like to make a strong case for the specific exclusion of further mining
in highly sensitive, coastal zone habitats and the phased curtailment of
current mining operations in such areas.
Furthermore, the legislation should articulate explicitly that the
Minister of environmental affairs is the competent authority in terms of mining
activities in the coastal zone.
3.
SPECIFIC COMMENT
Section
8 (Extending coastal public property):
WESSA is pleased to note the provision that coastal public property may
be extended to include any state-owned land within the coastal zone. WESSA urges the Minister to ensure that most
state-owned land within the coastal zone is designated as coastal public
property and suggests that immediate measures are put in place to prevent
especially local authorities from attempting to obtain revenue from the sale of
such land in the interim period until this Bill is promulgated as law.
Section
13 (Access to coastal public property):
The intention of the Bill is to ensure that South Africans are able to
exercise their right of access to coastal public property, the ownership of
which is vested in them. The Bill does
not deal with the problem of citizens being denied access to coastal public
property through the fencing off of private land that is adjacent to coastal
public property (see later comment on Section 18).
Section
13 (4): A public participation process
should be obligatory before approval is granted for the imposition of a fee for
access to coastal public property. The
word "may" should be replaced with the word "must".
Section
14 (Position of the high water mark):
WESSA is pleased to note the area included in coastal public property
will, in terms of the proposed Act, be automatically adjusted to accommodate
inward movement of the high water mark and that accretion will not result in a
reduction of the area included in coastal public property.
Section
15 (Measures affecting erosin and accretion):
To date, owners and occupiers of land adjacent to the seashore have
required organs of the state to take measures to protect their properties from
the effects of coastal erosion. WESSA
trusts that this clause in the Bill will serve as a deterrent to building too
close to the current shoreline. WESSA
also trusts that local authorities will be mindful of this clause when
approving plans for development of land adjacent to the seashore.
Section
18 (Designation of coastal access land):
Section 18(1) states that: Each municipality whose area includes coastal
public property must within four years of commencement of this Act, make a
by-law that designates strips of land adjacent to that coastal public property
as coastal access land in order to secure public access to that coastal public
property. The Bill appears to presuppose
that municipalities, including district municipalities, own land that is
suitable to be designated as coastal access land. This is not always the case and increasingly
landowners are using private land ownership of coastal land as a means of
securing their own private beaches and denying the public access to the
seashore. Large developments on the
coastline, such as golfing estates, are particularly notorious in this
regard. WESSA believes that the Bill
should make provision, where necessary, for the expropriation of land that will
be designated as coastal access land so as to ensure that the public is able to
access coastal public property. In
future, proponents of large-scale coastal developments should, as a condition
of approval of the development, be required to cede land to the local authority
for the purpose of access to coastal public property. It should be noted that in many cases, access
to coastal public property by the public is a question of subsistence rather
than leisure.
Section
25 (Establishment of a coastal set-back line):
WESSA believes that the setback line in relation to coastal public
property should be dealt with separately and not together with the coastal
protection zone. In the case of coastal
public property, MECs should be required
to establish coastal setback lines to protect coastal public property and that
buildings should not be allowed to be erected on the seaward side of this
setback line.
All development proposals either
wholly or partially within the coastal protected zone should, as a mandatory
component of the development application, articulate a coastal setback line
that conservatively limits the extent of seaward development.
Section
26(3) (Determination and adjustment of coastal boundaries): This clause refers both to the determination
and adjustment of the boundaries of coastal areas. It is unclear why coastal boundaries may be determined only under certain
conditions. WESSA suggests that the word
"only" be removed from this clause.
Section
33(2) (National estuarine management protocol):
WESSA is pleased to note that the Minister retains the responsibility
for prescribing a national estuarine management protocol, albeit with the
concurrence of the Minister responsible for water affairs. WESSA believes most strongly that the
ultimate responsibility for the management of estuaries should vest in the
Minister for environmental affairs.
Section
33(3): Many estuaries in
Section
35(1) (Establishment and function of the National Coastal Committee): WESSA believes that it is essential that a
National Coastal Committee be established and thus the word "may"
should be replaced with the word "must". Elsewhere in the Bill, mention is made of
referring matters to the National Coastal Committee. It is thus assumed that such a committee will
exist and therefore the Minister should be obliged to see to its
formation. The National Coastal
Committee will perform essential participatory and information-sharing
functions.
Sections
39 and 42 (Provincial and municipal coastal committees): It is difficult to understand how coastal
management will be successfully integrated at all levels without the existence
of these committees. WESSA believes that
the establishment of Provincial Coastal Committees should be required in terms
of the proposed Act, as should Municipal Coastal Committees, at least in terms
of metropolitan municipalities.
Section
48 (4) (Preparation and adoption of municipal coastal management programmes: WESSA supports the inclusion of coastal
management programmes as part of integrated development plans and spatial
development frameworks that have been adopted in accordance with the Municipal
Systems Act.
Section
53 (Consultation and public participation):
WESSA notes with pleasure that, throughout the Bill, there is a
commitment to public participation and consultative decision-making. However, the section dealing with public
participation has been considerably weakened since the initial draft of the
Bill and this is disappointing. In
particular, the removal of the following clauses is of grave concern:
·
The Minister, MEC, municipality or other person exercising
that power must take account of the representations and objections received
during the consultative process before exercising the power.
·
A person exercising a power
. may allow interested or
affected parties to make oral representations or objections in order to enable
them to participate more effectively in the decision-making process.
While the first draft of the Bill
actively embodied and committed itself to meaningful public participation, the
current draft has reduced such public participation to a perfunctory process in
which the public does not necessarily believe it has any role in the
decision-making process. It is
particularly disappointing to note that the Bill does not make provision for oral
submissions and therefore restricts comment to those who are able to provide
cogent, written comment. In many coastal
communities there is a significant rate of illiteracy or semi-literacy and
restricting comment to the written format effectively excludes those often and
most acutely affected by decisions from participating in such decisions.
Section
58 (Duty to avoid causing adverse effects on coastal developments): WESSA believes that a serious shortcoming of
this section is the failure to consider the cumulative impacts of activities
which individually, in themselves, may not qualify as having "significant
adverse effects". WESSA urges that
this shortcoming be remedied.
Section
58 (1) (a): The current phrasing of this
clause is somewhat humorously ambiguous.
WESSA suggests the following phraseology:
to any impact caused by any person and that has an adverse effect on the
coastal environment.
Section
58 (2) (v): WESSA suggests the
following amendment to the wording of this clause:
Any person who produced or discharged a substance which caused,
is causing ...
Section
60 (5) (Repair or removal of structures within coastal zone): WESSA is pleased to note that the Bill makes
adequate provision for dealing effectively with abandoned structures where the
owner cannot be indentified.
Section
62 (2) (Implementation of land use legislation in coastal protection zone): WESSA is pleased to note that an organ of
state may not authorise land within the coastal protection zone be used for any
activity that may have an adverse effect on the coastal environment without first considering an environmental
impact assessment report.
WESSA trusts that this commitment to
requiring a prior environmental impact assessment report will be retained
despite proposals that the National Environmental Management Act be amended to
include decision-making tools other than environmental impact assessments. WESSA considers environmental impact
assessments to be the only reliable and scientifically acceptable decision-making
tool by which to judge proposed activities as contemplated in this section of
the Bill.
Section
63 (1) (b) (Integrated environmental authorisations for coastal activities): WESSA commends the drafters of the Bill for
including this clause, which considers the past record of compliance of
applicants.
Section
69 (1) (Discharge of effluent into coastal waters): WESSA believes that the content of this
section is adequate in situations where the discharge of effluent and its assimilation
has been regulated for a long time-period.
However,
The Bill should distinguish between
outfall pipelines on high-energy coastlines and those in areas where the
turn-around of water is slow, e.g.
4.
CONCLUSION
Thank you for the opportunity
afforded WESSA to comment on this Bill and its previous draft. While not perfect, the proposed legislation
has much to commend it and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
is to be congratulated on the drafting of a comprehensive and cohesive
document. Much of the required detail
will follow with the promulgation of regulations and, in time, it will become
more evident what the shortcomings of the legislation are. Significantly, this legislation represents a
very strong commitment to the integrated management of our coastal zone. The implementation of such legislation is
long overdue and WESSA is of the opinion that the promulgation of the
Integrated Coastal Zone Management Act should be regarded as an urgent
priority.
Forward to a healthy environment.
Andy Gubb