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Namibia: A Road Runs Through It
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
Windhoek
A CONTROVERSIAL blot on the landscape near Sossusvlei are two abandoned buildings just off the Namib-Naukluft and Sesriem road with bulldozer tracks marring the otherwise pristine area.
According to the Road Authority's (RA) Control and Maintenance Manager and Environmentalist, Chris Theron, the buildings were erected in 1998-99 by the Patriotic Construction Company (PCC).
The PCC, a project of the now defunct Development Brigade Corporation (DBC), was then contracted by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to build the Sesriem road through the Namib-Naukluft Park.
After the DBC closed down, the PCC was dissolved into the Roads Contractor Company (RCC).
Theron said the area around the buildings had become a restricted nature conservation area and the Roads Authority had only proclaimed the road two years ago, when maintenance to the Sesriem road was carried out and left behind bulldozer tracks which are a blot on the environmental landscape in an area popular with tourists.
"The buildings belong to Nature Conservation, we only made use of them when we went there for the construction of the road," he said, adding that there had never been any discussion about dismantling the buildings.
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"If the buildings have to be removed we have no problem doing that, we will do it.
We try to upgrade the area and have recently put concrete slabs through the riverbeds to accommodate vehicles that pass through with tourists in the rainy season."
Theron said he would raise the matter with the Ministry of Environment.
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| Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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