Like stepping onto mars, everything on the road into Saldanha is red – trees, buildings, bushes, even some seagulls. Ominously called ‘the red dust’, this iron ore residue mined elsewhere is transported by train into Saldanha Port.
Saldanha is also an industrial and touristic destination with its extensive beaches, but tourism is held back by challenges like the red dust.
With the industrial history of Saldanha on the one hand and a possible green economy future on the other, the region is at an inflection point. But a mistrust lingers in many Saldanha communities where the environmental and social costs of previous pathways of industrial development are still felt.
While TPT reports show that emissions are not exceeding legal limits, as Wilhem says, “you just have to look outside to see that it is still a major problem”. According to the Red Dust Action Group’s current chairperson, Kyle Dods, they are seeking a review of the limits set out in current legislation. They see this as an urgent matter since manganese is also now being exported, raising new fears of potentially toxic “black dust”.
The aim is to use the factory to produce green hydrogen for “green steel” production. General manager Aldrich Louis explains that the initial feasibility phase is set to begin this year.When and whether these green economy plans will come to fruition – and what their impact will be if they do – remains unclear.
he actively supports the plight of small-scale fishers – from challenging the drawing of Maritime Protected Areas along the West Coast, which she says prevents them from fishing, to opposing theFrom her house in Langebaan, Solene recounts a 20-year battle against an opaque, inefficient and unjust permitting process – from thejust to get permit rights at all, to dealing with extreme limits placed on small-scale fishers as to species and numbers that don’t allow them to earn a living.
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