Noordhoek activists in court battle to defend wetlands, endangered toad

The Noordhoek Environmental Action Group (NEAG) has filed an interdict against the City of Cape Town after a link road project at the environmentally sensitive Noordhoek wetlands had been given the green light by the Western Cape government. 

The new link road could drive the endangered western leopard toad species to local extinction, environmentalists warn.

NOORDHOEK WETLANDS: WHY WAS COURT INTERDICT FILED?

Since 2004, there has been a standstill between authorities and environmental groups about the development of the new road that links the edge of the Noordhoek wetlands as the project risks the survival of the unique toad species.

However, on 15 March, environment MEC Anton Bredell signed a letter that dismissed appeals against his department’s approval of the second phase of the two-phased project.

This can hopefully still be halted by a high court application — as happened in 2004, then then environment MEC Tasneem Essop stopped the project in its tracks . 

WESTERN LEOPARD TOAD: FLAGSHIP SPECIES IN WETLAND

According to the Daily Maverick, just 48 hours after the letter was signed, lawyers for NEAG submitted a 387-page application to the Western Cape High Court that challenged eight key elements in Bredell’s 2020 approval of the first phase of the new road subsequently asking for the approval to be reversed. 

NEAG stated that the new road would “most probably” result in the local extinction of an endangered species — the western leopard toad.

“Western leopard toads are really the canary in the coal mine for biodiversity and what is happening on our planet,” said Alison Faraday, co-founder of Toadnuts, the volunteer organisation based in Noordhoek.

“We know that the four permanent bodies of water that are next to this proposed road will almost certainly be wiped out by the road and the traffic pollution. But it is important to note that they are the flagship species for everything else that is existing in the wetland currently,” she added. 

CITY’S PLANS CUTS THROUGH BREEDING PONDS

The first phase of the project involves a 1.2km extension of Houmoed Avenue in Sunnydale that runs along the eastern side of wetlands.

The second phase of the project is a further extension that connects Lekkerwater Road with Fish Eagle Park in the west and facilitates the city’s upgrading plans for formal and informal housing in the township of Masiphumelele.

“The road proposed to be built, in this section of the Noordhoek wetlands, cuts directly through two important western leopard toad breeding ponds, and through the periphery of a third breeding pond,” said Andrea Marais-Potgieter, chairperson of NEAG, according to Daily Maverick.

“The resulting loss of habitat, blockage of essential movement and dispersal corridors, and the substantial increase of vehicular traffic flow, will cause a significant and potentially irreversible in the local populations of the western leopard toad in the Noordhoek valley,” she added. 

The Daily Maverick reports that Felicity Purchase, Mayco Member for Transport, said that the city is considering their options in regard to the application and would inform the NEAG when a decision has been made by 12 April latest.