Some environmental groups that have taken action against the South African National Roads AGENCY (SANRAL) recently, over environmental concerns are Kasselman, the Centre for Environmental Rights and a group made up of BirdLife SA, Endangered Wildlife Trust, the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, Association for Water and Rural Development, Bench Marks Foundation.
But in a publication titled “Investing in the Environment” SANRAL has documented some interesting projects to protect plants and trees, and monitor own carbon footprint.
Reginald Demana, (SANRAL) CEO, “climate change is a reality, and if we don’t all play our part, things will only get worse.”
Demana said SANRAL was directly affected by major floods that hit KwaZulu-Natal, and were called to assist with the rehabilitation of municipal and provincial roads.
“Another example was when we had to remove pine trees on the R21, on the way to the airport, because pine needles were continously blocking grind inlets, which leads to flooding if the roads. We replaced problematic pines with Kareem, which will not block any inlets.”
Other projects are the replanting of several plants, similar to saving Baobab trees while working on the Musina Ring Road Construction.
The Msibaka Bridge forms part of the SANRAL’s N2 Wild Coast Roads Project, linked to the over R4 billion Mtentu Bridge in the Winnie Madikizela- Mandela Local Municipality.
Nenekazi Songxaba, SANRAL’s Southern Region’s Environmental Coordinator, said from the onset, it was established that the land at both sides of the bridge, was home to plants that grew nowhere else in the world.
She said it’s not true that SANRAL doesn’t care about the environment, there is a team made up of a Wetland special, a botanist, an ecologist and an environmental officer, for most projects.
In addition, there is an extensive public participation process, prior to implementing a project.
She said permits were also obtained from both the Department of Water and Sanitation and of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment prior to any sod turning.
In addition to using sustainable material in road construction, SANRAL has a strategy to mitigate own carbon footprint.
An example is the N4 Pampoennek highway, an underpass designed for small mammals to be able to cross the busy road.
More projects are documented in a publication downloadable from:
https://publications.nra.co.za/books/hfhk/#p=4