WILDLIFE THREAT: ‘No chance’: Road rubble allegedly buries Gqeberha riverside kingfisher nests

A decision to dump tonnes of road rubble and tar beside the Baakens River in Gqeberha has sparked a criminal case after conservationists alleged the waste buried kingfisher nesting sites during breeding season and poses a risk to an already fragile water body.

Wildlife rescue expert Arnold Slabbert opened a criminal case at Humewood police station on Friday, alleging that environmental, waste and animal-protection laws had been contravened.

Slabbert said the rubble, which included large quantities of old tar and other road-building material, had been dumped on the bank of the Baakens River near South Union Street.

He alleged that the material covered kingfisher nesting burrows and that birds, eggs and chicks inside the burrows may have been killed.

“It’s actually quite disgusting. They’ve broken so many laws. The tar has to be specially disposed of. So it costs money. So somewhere along the line, there was a bit of conniving,” Slabbert said.

“They said to the contractor, just dump the stuff in this hole. Unfortunately for them, the banks were full of pied kingfisher nests.”

The rubble came from roadworks on South Union Street, carried out by a company contracted by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

Slabbert said the contractor should have disposed of material removed during the roadworks at an authorised facility rather than dumping it beside a river.

“We keep getting these issues coming up. The people managing the contractors have no clue what they’re doing. But in other cases, there is no management of the contractor,” he said.

“You’ll have the contractor working on a road along a protected area. And he will just dump all the stuff into the river.”

The contractor responsible for the road repairs was reportedly in the process of taking the material to an official disposal facility.

Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg confirmed that a criminal case has been opened at the station in terms of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008.

“I’m sure I can find something indefinitely under the Water Act as well, because they dump that stuff on the bank of a river,” Slabbert said.

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is already facing two active criminal investigations over alleged sewage pollution and could face multimillion-rand fines if found guilty of violating environmental laws.

Kingfishers killed during breeding season

The destruction of the nesting site has raised particular concern because kingfishers were breeding along the riverbank.

Slabbert said birds had been inside the burrows when the rubble was dumped.

“All of those birds died. They were inside, busy breeding. They had chicks, they had eggs. They had no chance,” he said.

“Imagine a big machine comes and just dumps tons and tons of rubble. So they suffocated and were crushed under the weight of whatever was there.”

He said the incident was particularly concerning because of the broader threats facing wildlife along the Baakens River. Chunks of the asphalt had, according to Slabbert, fallen into the already fragile Baakens River.

“The Baakens River is under continuous threat from development and pollution. The collapse of municipal infrastructure has ensured that tons of sewage get into that river,” Slabbert said.

“It’s a very polluted river system, thanks to the lack of maintenance of municipal infrastructure. In fact, it’s basically used as a sewage canal.”

He described the river as having gone from being part of the city’s “green lung” to its “sh*t lung”.

“They are resurfacing a road. You know what the way to do it is? Whatever they take off the road has to be legally disposed of in accordance with the Waste Management Act. Asphalt is regarded as a noxious substance. It has to be treated properly,” Slabbert said.

The municipality’s involvement

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality did not respond to questions sent to it on Friday.

Nicole Klokow, spokesperson for the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), said on Sunday that the agency was looking into the matter and asked to respond next week. Comment will be added once received.

Slabbert, however, said a lack of knowledge about the nesting birds did not remove the legal concerns surrounding the dumping.

“The MBDA can, for example, say they did not know there were nests, but it doesn’t matter. They’ve still illegally dumped toxic waste where it can leach into a river. And some of it fell over into the river, of course,” he said.

DA ward councillor Bernhard Wolf described the dumping as “unacceptable” and unprofessional.

“I know it might not have been done on purpose, but some people have to be held responsible,” Wolf said.

“If we don’t hold officials or metro people responsible … how will we get anything going?

“If we just let everything slide slowly and slowly, what will be left for our children in the future?”

Wolf said the contractor should be held accountable for ensuring road-building waste was properly disposed of.

“They should know these laws. They work with tar all the time,” he said. DM