Image by Sacha Specker
To mark International Cleanup Day and to cast our beady eye on a controversial new mining operation near Doringbaai on the Cape West Coast, PTWC met up with Sentinel Ocean Alliance, Gone Outdoor and local activists on the weekend of Saturday 17 September.
With the logistical support of global conservation group Parley for the Oceans, we managed to muster 20 people, who rolled up their sleeves and gathered more than 123kg of waste. The waste was taken back to Cape Town and analyzed to assist in the fight to stop plastic pollution at its source. We also recycled 46% of the waste collected.
The top five pollutants were chip packets (1,291), sweet wrappers (731), plastic bags (344), cooldrink lids (249), and plastic bottles (200).
Image by Sacha Specker
CEO of PTWC Mike Schlebach said that Doringbaai had been chosen for the cleanup because of new mining operations north of Doringbaai that are being undertaken by an outfit called “Moonstone Diamond Marketing” a few months ago: “We wanted to support International Cleanup Day, but we also wanted to use it as a form of activation to document and show the world what is going on here”.
A camera crew was in attendance to film the devastation that the mining is having on the environment in the area. Watch this space.
Image by Sacha Specker
Image by Sacha Specker
The team came across no entry signs all over the area. This attempt to prevent public access to beaches and the surrounding areas were not long ago open to recreational users, who were free to roam and enjoy this pristine wilderness, which is increasingly scarred and scoured by heavy machinery.
The PTWC legal team is investigating Moonstone’s operations, and are probing their renewed mining rights to understand if the mining taking place is lawful.
Image by Sacha Specker.
Image by Sacha Specker.
Image by Sacha Specker.
Words by Steve Pike for Protect The West Coast
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The Protect the West Coast (PTWC) stand at the Wavescape Film Night in Kirstenbosch was feverishly busy as members of a sellout audience at the Galileo Outdoor Cinema in Kirstenbosch flocked to view and buy PTWC merch. More than 750 people attended the screening of three films celebrating surf culture and ocean conservation.
Protect the West Coast (PTWC) encourages the public to sign up as an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) via www.ripl.co.za by March 10 for a new application by Richwill Diamonds to prospect for diamonds on a stretch of coast in the Northern Cape that includes the farm Strandfontein 559, where the company has been charged with trespassing by landowners Braam and Therese Nieuwoudt. PTWC experts have raised concerns about the effect of invasive prospecting on the beaches and terrestrial vegetation, the broad long-term implications on this sensitive biodiversity area, and public beach access should it lead to a mining right.
OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, 1996
Everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation; promote conservation; and secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development.
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