Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. A serious case of coastal erosion is currently playing itself out in Saldanha Bay. At Paradise Beach many homes are now only one or two metres away from collapsing into the sea. A sewage pump station that serves several hundred houses is facing a similar fate, threatening to severely contaminate the bay.
A north-westerly wind combined with the spring tide will put paid to these homes and the pump station overnight. Nevertheless, the ongoing coastal erosion will lead to the same results in the coming months.
Management of responses to coastal erosion falls very firmly in the competency of national government. For this reason, I call on the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs to act urgently and decisively to prevent the further erosion of this coastline.
The situation requires an immediate engineering response which will require authorisation from her department. This will buy time while a more considered long-term engineering response can be found.
Local ratepayers' associations have attempted to engage with the department on this matter in the last few weeks, but have met with bureaucracy and a lack of will on the part of the officials who have been asked to tackle the problem.
It must be noted that the erosion occurring is not as a result of natural processes. The tidal action was altered by the building of the breakwater several decades ago as well as recent expansions in the harbour. This makes it even more incumbent on the Minister to act on this erosion, which I hope she will do soon. Thank you.