Green plan for Wild Coast road

a new compromise proposal has been made by the wildlife and environment society of south africa to resolve environmental objections to the n2 wild coast toll road plan.

the compromise plan has been drawn up by keith cooper, the former conservation director of the society, who has been consulting civil engineers, botanical experts and several other interest groups behind the scenes in an attempt to find a "win-win" solution to the long-standing controversy. cooper's proposal is to re-align the proposed toll route slightly to the north to skirt a globally unique botanic zone and to avoid further degradation of coastal areas recently earmarked by the government for a new national park.





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the alternative plan would still shave as much as 70km off the present n2 journey from durban to mthatha, via kokstad, and would be only about 20km longer than the route currently favoured by the south african national roads agency. by realigning the proposed roads agency route further away from the pondoland wild coast, it was still possible to achieve a shorter and more direct route to mthatha and avoid damage to the country's natural heritage.

"i believe this new plan makes sense from an economic, environmental and social perspective. the wild coast between port edward and port st johns is an important part of the heritage of the pondo people."

cooper said it was difficult to understand how the toll proposal, by the roads agency and the wild coast n2 toll consortium, would bring development and assistance to rural populations as district roads in the most populous areas were in "a shocking state of disrepair". upgrading these poorly maintained inland roads would bring more development to the poor than a pay-to-use coastal road.

cooper's proposed route (see map) begins at port edward, following the existing r61 until siyapambhili store, then cuts south-westwards via makwenteni, zangotsha, lundini, mkamela and mawothsheni to link up with the roads agency route at lusikisiki. a second alternative - but longer - route would be to re-align the road via holy cross mission and qaukeni. cooper said that as far as he was aware neither of these proposals had been investigated properly by the roads agency. botanical expert tony abbott said he had not studied cooper's proposed route in detail yet.

"but i'm quite happy with it in principle and think it is definitely something which could work."

kathy cay, of the save the wild coast campaign, said members of her coalition had also drawn up several alternatives which she hoped would also be considered. nevertheless, the cost of building new bridges in the deeply-incised river valleys of pondoland could prove to be a decisive factor for the roads agency and the private consortium of construction companies which hope to build the new road. sanral spokesperson connie nel could not be reached yesterday for comment.

last year, environment minister marthinus van schalkwyk overturned the initial environmental impact assessment after having found close financial links between an environmental consultancy and members of the private toll consortium. sanral has also encountered opposition to its toll road plan from the ethekwini municipality.