Swallows may clip wings of new Shaka airport 
Edward West

KwaZulu-Natal Correspondent

PIETERMARITZBURG — The establishment of the R2,5bn King Shaka International Airport north of Durban by 2010 was likely to increase noise pollution and affect barn swallows — two major environmental issues that will need further investigation.

The preliminary report, which defines issues to be investigated in the environmental impact assessment, also notes that the airport, the Dube Trade Port development and a 130ha high-value agricultural zone have the potential to double the province’s economic growth rate and to create “hundreds of thousands of new jobs”.

“It is the only single government- initiated programme in this province that could achieve this level of growth impact,” the report says.

The study was compiled by the Pietermaritzburg-based Institute of Natural Resources, a nongovernmental organisation. It says 224 species of birds were recorded at the site, but not in great numbers.

However, it is the presence of barn swallows that is the primary environmental concern counting against the development of King Shaka International Airport.

At the nearby Mount Moreland, more than a million barn swallows are roosting, with up to 2-million of the birds calculated last year.

These would “undoubtedly represent a safety issue for aircraft”, the report says. It warns noise pollution will “be a significant consequence” for the residential properties of Tongaat Hulett, the biggest property developer in the province, particularly in areas such as Mount Moreland and Herrwood.

In addition, property values of existing and planned residential developments, such as Zimbali, “may be affected”.

The relocation of the existing airport south of Durban would allow for the petrochemical industry to expand in that area, the expansion of the back-of-port operations for Durban and for the development of light warehousing and manufacturing facilities in the area.

The report says the survey was produced against a background of growing marginalisation of the provincial economy within the national context, leading to Durban becoming, to a large extent, a “branch” of Johannesburg’s economy.