THE development company which filled in the Disa River wetlands when they started building their Hout Bay Beach Club has started restoring the site.

This comes after the City of Cape Town and the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) took legal action to prevent any further in-filling of the wetlands by Really Useful Investments 219 (Pty) Ltd.

The city and DWA were concerned about the impact on the riverine and wetland environment, the quality of the water and the beach areas next to the Beach Club.

Apart from the city’s concerns, Hout Bay residents complained excessively and Kronendal Primary School handed a petition over to city.

The developer insisted that the work they had done was legal in terms of a construction environmental management plan that was approved by the provincial environmental authorities in February 2011.

They then ignored an order from the city to stop work in terms of the storm-water management by-law. Then the City stepped in with a directive under the National Environmental Management Act and DWA served a directive under the National Water Act.

“We are very pleased that the developers of the Beach Club have initiated work to abide by the conditions set out in the directive. Working together with the Department of Water Affairs, the city has shown that destruction of our natural resources will not be tolerated,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic, Environmental and Spatial Planning, Alderman Belinda Walker.

The process has taken quite some time to conclude because of the specialist information that the developers needed to obtain, such as reports prepared by wetland and hydrological specialists.

“The developer has until 30 March to complete the required rehabilitation work and the city will be monitoring this process carefully,” said Alderman Walker.

Chief director of the Western Cape Department of Water Affairs Rashid Khan ended off by saying “This is another good example of co-operative governance between the city and the Department of Water Affairs to protect our natural resources”.

People’s Post could not obtain comment from Really Useful Investments by the time of going to print.