8 000-plus say no to taxi holding next to estuary
A petition against a temporary taxi rank that is planned by Knysna Municipality on an environmentally sensitive property adjacent to the lagoon has garnered significant support online, reaching nearly 7 000 signatures within its first five days.
Knysna's estuary plays an integral role in the ecosystems that make up the environmental beauty and natural serenity that lie in and around Knysna, and as the town grows, the lagoon and all of the ecosystems constantly come under more threat. One of the latest threats to the stability of the estuary's ecosystem, the petition states, comes in the form of a temporary taxi rank/holding that the municipality is planning to build at the end of Auction Mart Avenue to house taxis until June 2020.
'Not a permanent solution'
According to the municipality's director of community services, Eben Phillips, the emphasis needs to be placed on the fact that the holding will be temporary and not a permanent solution. "It will not be a fully fledged taxi rank but a holding facility while the upgrades to New Street are under way," Phillips said. The project to upgrade New Street – which includes tarring of the facility, provision of decent ablution facilities and parking – is, according to Phillips, only expected to conclude in June next year, meaning taxis could occupy the piece of land for up to seven months during the project.
This is a prospect that does not sit well with Knysna residents Andre Kruger and Ilse de Beer, who have since started a petition on the online platform Change.org to try and stop the municipality from going ahead with its plans. The petition lists a variety of reasons why they feel the property is not a suitable solution for a temporary taxi holding, with the majority reasons centred around concern that the holding will severely impact the wellbeing of the estuary.
Important for conservation
According to the municipality's website, the estuary "boasts considerable conservation importance with it ranking third of South Africa’s estuaries in terms of botanical importance, eighth in terms of importance for conserving fish, 19th in terms of water and bird conservation, and first in terms of overall conservation importance". While the entirety of the estuary might not be immediately threatened by the potential taxi holding, De Beer is concerned about the immediate impact it could have on birdlife. With no freshwater for the birds to drink from close by, Kruger took matters into his own hands by building a freshwater pond in the area in contention.
When looking at the Western Cape Government's mapping software CapeFarmMapper, the petitioners' concerns seem well warranted given the fact that a portion of the property on which they have demarcated parking bays, falls within the boundary of protected areas set out by the Western Cape Biodiversity Spatial Plan (WCBSP).
Despite this, the municipality insists it would never build in an environmentally sensitive area. "KM would not proceed with establishing facilities that are posing risks to the environment," said municipal spokesperson Dibandlela Nkume. He added that ablution facilities would be made available at the waste transfer station.
38 parking bays already prepared
An inspection at the site revealed that the area has already been cleared and prepared for the taxis, with 38 parking bays marked out, while the freshwater pond has been filled with soil and rocks too.
Nkume pointed out that the pond
"was illegally constructed" and that "the municipality has no record of any form of approval for it to be there". In response to this, Kruger said while they may say it was illegally constructed, all he did was dig a hole and provide freshwater to the birds. "It should matter more about the birdlife and environment than anything else," he added.
The petition began on Thursday 7 November and immediately caught the eye of Knysna's eco-warriors, with the document receiving 1 000 signatures on the first day. By the time of going to print the petition stood at just over 8 100 signatures.
Despite rumours this week that the taxi holding had been moved, the municipality denied this, saying, "The status quo remains."