Basic Assessment Report - Transnet

Transnet LimitedProposed RO Plant: Port of SaldanhaFinal Basic Assessment ReportA brief summary of these key requirements is provided below. Note that otherlegislative requirements may pertain to the proposed development, but identificationand interpretation of these is beyond the brief of this study. As such, the summaryprovided below is not intended to be definitive or exhaustive and serves to highlightkey environmental legislation and obligations only.2.1 National Environmental Management Act (Act No. 107,1998)The primary purpose of the National Environmental Management Act No. 107, 1998(NEMA) is to provide for co-operative environmental governance by establishingprinciples for decision-making on all matters affecting the environment. Theseinclude the following:• Development must be socially, environmentally and economically sustainable;• Pollution must be avoided or minimised and remedied;• Waste must be avoided or minimised, reused or recycled;• Negative impacts must be minimised; and• Responsibility for the environmental consequences of a policy, project, productor service applied throughout its life cycle.NEMA gives effect to Section 24 of the Constitution and in this respect, of particularimportance is NEMA’s injunction that the interpretation of any law concerned withthe protection and management of the environment must be guided by its principles.At the heart of these is the principle of ‘sustainable development’. Section 2 ofNEMA states that:(3) Development must be socially, environmentally and economicallysustainable.Subsequent sections elaborate further on sustainable development:(4) (a) Sustainable development requires the consideration of all relevant factorsincluding the following:• that the disturbance of ecosystems and loss of biological diversity are avoided,or, where they cannot be altogether avoided, are minimised and remedied;• that pollution and degradation of the environment are avoided, or, where theycannot be altogether avoided, are minimised and remedied;• that the disturbance of landscapes and sites that constitute the nation’s culturalheritage is avoided, or where it cannot be altogether avoided, is minimised andremedied;6Prepared by the PDNA/SRK Joint Venture