Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Mining plan could undermine farms
ABDURAHMAN Allie Kariel has been farming in the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA) for close to a decade.
The organic produce from his Valota farm is supplied to wholesalers who in turn sell to restaurants and hotels.
But now he, along with other farmers in the PHA, fear that their livelihoods would be destroyed as a result of plans to mine silica sand in the northern part of the PHA.
“There are already problems with salinity of water in the southern part and this could exacerbate the situation in the north,” said Kariel.
Of major concern is the proximity of the proposed mine to monitoring boreholes and the impact to the Cape Flats aquifer.
The proposed mining area is opposite Kriel's farm, and he fears that the operations would have an impact on air quality and the environment.
Calls for the protection of the entire PHA have heightened following the rejection of an application for a Water Use Licence (WUL) to enable silica sand mining.
The Water Tribunal turned down the application by Keysource Minerals for a second time, citing risks to the Cape Flats Aquifer and other negative environmental impact.
Keysource Minerals is a subsidiary of Apex Mining, which is 70% owned by Ardagh Glass Packaging, formerly known as Consol Glass.
The Philippi Horticultural Area Food and Farming Campaign (PHAFFC) welcomed the decision and regarded it as a “confirmation” that the PHA wetland ecosystem was “irreplaceable”.
Spokesperson Susanna Coleman said the decision was an “important milestone” in the ongoing struggle to protect the PHA foodland and the Cape Flats Aquifer, both crucial for the City's climate resilience.
Coleman said what was crucial now was for MEC for Local Government and Environment, Anton Bredell, and mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to implement measures to protect the PHA.
“They must decide on what constitutes the best public use of the water in the PHA. Should it benefit a private company over the needs of the people, farmers, and the environment?” she asked.
Coleman said the PHA was “drought-proof farmland” and its value in offsetting the effects of climate change could not be downplayed.
Bredell said he “recognised the importance” of the Cape Flats Aquifer and the applications lodged, as well as the decisions taken.
However, he said he was “not the sole authority responsible for applications” affecting the Cape Flats Aquifer nor the sole decision maker.
In May 2023, developers of the controversial Oakland City in the PHA also submitted a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to Bredell, seeking approval to build more than 400 houses on land considered to be 10 times the size of Century City.
In February 2020 the Western Cape High Court ordered the developers to conduct a new EIA, which should show the impact of the 500ha Oakland City Development on climate change, the Cape Flats Aquifer and water scarcity after the PHA .
Bredell was also part of the Western Cape cabinet who, together with the then MEC for Agriculture and now Premier Alan Winde, adopted the 2018 Indego Study that called for the protection of the PHA.
With plans by Keysource Minerals to mine silica sand there, the PHAFFC and civil society activists fear this would expose the vast pockets of salt in the open cast ponding system.
“The aquifer will become a salinated soup which will ruin the water supply to the farms,” said Coleman.
The area for the proposed mining was also connected to Zeekoevlei, Rondevlei and the greater False Bay conservation area.