11-13 November 2008
Dept of Tourism, Environment and Conservation gives thumbs up and issues a positive Record of Decision for the Northgate development

Northgate record of decision

Northgate gets thumbs up - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 11 November 2008 & DFA front page
Developers must deliver - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 12 November 2008

Appel kom teen Northgate-besluit - Volksblad - 13 November 2008

19 September 2008
Most municipal sewage plants below standard, says minister - Business Day - 19 September 2008
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A846805

Mark Anderson has won the 2008 AEWA Waterbird Conservation Award for his contribution to flamingo conservation. Read more about this award at http://www.unep-aewa.org/news/news_elements/2008/aewa_conservation_award_2008.htm

28 August - 2 September 2008
The Save the Flamingo Association is extremely pleased to see that its campaign is having many successes. The Association firmly believes that the recent moratorium on any further developments in Kimberley (until the Homevale Sewerage Works is upgraded) is a direct result of the campaign. Despite years of discussion and negotation, there had been no progress until the Save the Flamingo Association commenced with its campaign. The Association is grateful to the many people who have signed the petition and donated funds towards the campaign. The battle is however far from over, and the desired end result is a sewerage works which can adequately cope with Kimberley's sewage water.

A webcam has been installed on the Kamfers Dam flamingo breeding island. The state of the art camera has pan, tilt and zoom functions, and there are also infra red lights (for nightime viewing) and a microphone. Initially, only refresh images are available (See "Flamingo" link on www.africam.com), but it is anticipated that live streaming images will be available once band width problems have been resolved. The camera and other infrastructure was sponsored by Nedbank, Ekapa Mining, Africam and Nugen. The project is also done in collaboration with several people and organizations, including the Booth family, BirdLife South Africa, the Save the Flamingo Association and the Flamingo Environmental Trust.

Here are some news items over this period:
Waste puts city on hold - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 28 August 2008
Council unaware of monatorium - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 02 September 2008

15-21 August 2008
Here are various news items over this period:
Flaminke kuikens kan vrek - Volksblad - 15 August 2008
Concern after suspension of NC scientists - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 15 August 2008

Government axes flamingo crusaders - Saturday Star - 16 August 2008
Geskorste voelkundige kry hoe pos - Volksblad - 16 August 2008

Top bird man grounded - Sunday Independent - 17 August 2008
Cartoon - Sunday Independent - 17 August 2008

Letters to the DFA - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 18 August 2008

Calls sound for Flamingo dam probe - IOL - 19 August 2008

ACDP calls probe - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 20 August 2008
Northgate steun flaminke-veldtog - Volksblad - 20 August 2008

Developers confirm scientist complaint - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 21 August 2008
Flamingo row: Officials 'under house arrest' - Mail & Guardian - 21 August 2008

Flamingo Fallout - Africa Birds & Birding - August / September 2008

14 & 15 August 2008
See these letters regarding the news on 12 & 13 August:
Letters to the Editor - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 14 & 15 August 2008

12 & 13 August 2008
"In the latest government shock move, three senior staff members have been suspended from the Department of Tourism, Environment and Nature Conservation in the Northern cape.."
'Bird men' put on ice - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 12 August 2008

Widespread outcry from wildlife societies and conservation organisations about suspension of Mark Anderson and colleagues ...
Bird man quits - Diamond Fields Advertiser - 13 August 2008

3 Amptenare geskors - Volksblad - 13 August 2008

26 July 2008
Kamfers Dam media release - Volksblad - 26 July 2008

24 July 2008
City's flamingos make headlines worldwide - Diamond Fields Advertiser 24 July 08

Letters to DFA 22 & 24 July 2008 - Diamond Fields Advertiser

Top Mayor Leaves - Headline - The Sun 22 July 2008

Kimberley mayor resigns - The Sun 22 July 08

11 July 2008
Here is the latest Save the Flamingo Association media release

14 July 2008
Dam fills up with sewage - Diamond Fields Advertiser, 14 July

12 July 2008
See the following links for more international media coverage:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/10/eaflam110.xml

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-194153

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/sewage-threatens-to-turn-flamingo-breeding-site-into-cesspool-865070.html

10 July 2008
Here is the latest RSPB press release

BirdLife International has voiced concern about the plight of Kamfers Dam’s flamingos. See: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2008/07/kamfers_dam.html

See this link for more media coverage in the UK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/10/eaflam110.xml

Battle ... of the big pink birds! - Daily Sun 10/07/08

9 July 2008
Here are some more links to the latest media coverage:
Letters to DFA editor - Diamond Fields Advertiser 09/07/08 - Part 1
Letters to DFA editor - Diamond Fields Advertiser 09/07/08 - Part 2
Mayor objects to objections - Noordkaap 09/07/08
Mayor outcry - Diamond Fields Advertiser 09/07/08
Ontwikkeling sal nie voels verjaag - Volksblad 05/07/08

It is not only Kimberley’s sewerage works which is malfunctioning. The Matjhabeng Municipality (located in the Free State [Welkom area], South Africa) has been given 30 days by Ms Lindiwe Hendriicks, Minister of Water Affairs Forestry, to sort out its Witpan Sewerage Works. She described their sewerage works as an “emergency situation”. The Matjhabeng Municipal Manager was given 30 days to compile an action plan, otherwise face prosecution according to the Water Act (and a possible fine or 5 year imprisonment) (see Volksblad [1 July 2008 and 3 July 2008]). It is perhaps time for Ms Hendricks to pay a visit to Kimberley!

Also see what the Sol Plaatje Municipality Mayor had to say on Carte Blanche!

Here are the links to the open letter to the Sol Plaatje Municipality Mayor, as well as the background information given to him:
Letter to the SPM Mayor
Background info for the SPM Maypr

Read comments on the Carte Blanche programme which was screened on M-Net on Sunday 29 June 2008 at:
http://www.mnet.co.za/Mnet/Shows/carteblanche/story.asp?Id=3530

The following sites are supporting our campaign:
First Facebook group
Another Facebook group
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/savetheflamingo
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Save-the-SA-Lesser-Flamingoes
http://www.treevolution.co.za/?p=361

“…the situation in many municipalities is dire, and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”

Excerpt from a speech made by Mrs L.B. Hendricks, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa

“Other important area to address is the municipal waste water treatment plants. The responsibility for the running of the waste water treatment plants rest with municipalities. Here the responsibility of my Department is to play an oversight role. We have done an audit and found that the situation in many municipalities is dire, and must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The pollution in some of our rivers can be directly linked to failure on the part of these municipal waste water treatment plants, and there is no denying that some of these plants are in poor condition.”

South African Parliament, 11 March 2008

“The strength of our legislation and regulations will be tested where we find municipalities that are unwilling to respond to our calls for compliance.”

Excerpts from a speech made by Mrs L.B. Hendricks, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa

“A few weeks ago I made a statement to Parliament to discuss the concerns about the potential for a ‘water crisis’ in South Africa; and there I highlighted some of the challenges that we face as a country. While I do not believe that these challenges can be categorised in the form of a ‘crisis’ such as we have experienced in the energy sector, they are of concern to me, and require attention. Challenges that I highlighted include infrastructure management; drinking water quality, particularly in the rural areas and smaller towns; the need to increasing the efforts to address pollution of our rivers; the skills limitation within the sector; the impacts of urbanization; and climate change.”

“The question we must ask ourselves is, is our legislation and our policies strong enough to address these challenges?”

“After some thought what is clear to me is that our legislation and policies provide an excellent framework within which we should be able to systematically address these various challenges. It is therefore not surprising that very often our debates have mainly been about how best to implement these policies. And while after ten years of the National Water Act and 11 years of the Water Services Act there are invariably areas that could be improved, I am however doubtful that any review would result in fundamental changes.”

“What this tells us is that “half the battle is won” and to address the challenges in the water sector we must apply ourselves to increasing efforts on developing and implementing the regulations, filling the gaps, and establishing the necessary structures. Professionals also need to respond by providing the necessary tools to ensure that these policies are implemented effectively.”

“Of course it is important to note that even in a situation where we are able to show high level of compliance with norms and standards - there is, as I reported to Parliament, a small percentage of municipalities that do not comply with our standards. Non compliance can result in the loss of lives and requires an urgent response. The Mayors of the municipalities that have been identified through our monitoring system as consistently not complying would have received a letter from me a few days ago, where I informed them of the serious consequences of their non-compliance and requested their urgent intervention and response.”

“The strength of our legislation and regulations will be tested where we find municipalities that are unwilling to respond to our calls for compliance and continue to place their communities and the most vulnerable in those communities at risk.”

“A second case to consider is the state of our rivers. Over the years we have had a number of programmes aimed at monitoring the health of our freshwater resources, and some of you would have been involved in this initiative in different contexts and at different levels. One such monitoring programme is the River Health Programme which assists us with assessing and understanding the status of our water resources. Recently, my Department has started bringing in the aspect of voluntary monitoring in the form of the Adopt-A-River initiative. What becomes important is how we expand the programme and integrate the information from this programme with other data collected on the quality of fresh water so that we are able to apply it when we take on and fine polluters. Coherency is therefore required in our regulations for the Waste Discharge Charges and our scientific data where we analyse and record the state of our rivers.”

WISA 2008 Conference, Sun City, North West Province, South Africa, 19 May 2008

“The new breeding island …….. is arguably the single most important flamingo conservation project to have taken place anywhere in the world in recent years.”

Comments by Dr Brooks Childress, Chairman, IUCN-SSC/Wetlands International Flamingo Specialist Group, on Kamfers Dam’s flamingo island

“The new breeding island in Kamfers Dam, planned by Mark Anderson and built by Ekapa Mining for the near-threatened lesser flamingo, is arguably the single most important flamingo conservation project to have taken place anywhere in the world in recent years. This species is believed to be declining throughout its range, primarily due to loss of suitable habitat, but also because of its irregular breeding patterns and lack of suitable breeding sites. There are only five other confirmed regular breeding sites throughout its vast range from West Africa to India, and from Ethiopia to South Africa, and only two others in southern Africa. If left undisturbed, this new breeding island should have a significant beneficial effect in stabilising the southern African population of this species.”

Slimbridge, United Kingdom, 11 June 2008