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ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING REPORT FOR THE PROPOSED 40MW OPEN CYCLE GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT IN THE AMERSFOORT AREA, MPUMALANGA Figure 7.10: Land use in the study area 7.2.4. Micro-economic Status Quo Bohlweki-SSI Environmental The current regional economic environment seems to be dominated by agriculture, and power generation, with towns in the area providing services and products to these industries and local residents providing labour to the industries or running related businesses. This is supported by information contained in the Pixley ka Seme Local Municipality IDP 5 which indicated that agriculture and electricity provision both represented significant sectors in the local economy together with trade and manufacturing. Skills level in the region remains a problem with less than 18% of pupils achieving grade 12 or above 6 . This is likely to limit the amount of local benefit from the project by increasing the need for outside employees. There seems to be a strong need for organisations to provide skills development and training, and thus providing job mobility to more skilled opportunities. Any large local economic injection could have dramatic effects on local suppliers and employees. 5 Pixley ka Seme Local Municipality, 2001. Pixley ka Seme Local Municipality IDP. Available at URL http://pixleykaseme.local.gov.za. 6 Statistics SA; 2007. Community Survey Interactive Results. Available at http://www.statssa.org.za E02.JNB.000308 ESKOM HOLDINGS LIMITED 01 54 08/10/2009
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING REPORT FOR THE PROPOSED 40MW OPEN CYCLE GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT IN THE AMERSFOORT AREA, MPUMALANGA Bohlweki-SSI Environmental Farming on or near the project site is characterised by both dryland crop farming, and animal husbandry (mostly cattle farming). There are several small communities of workers living in the area in addition to landowners or tenants. The new plant will occupy a small footprint but the gas cleaning and distribution facilities will be spread over a large area. This may increase the negative economic impact of the project. 7.2.5. Heritage • Stone Age No information about Stone Age habitation of the area is available. There might be two reasons for this. Firstly, it is unlikely that Stone Age people would have occupied the area specific, as it would have been to cold and no shelters or caves exists locally that could be used to shelter in. Secondly, no systematic survey of the area has been done and, as a result, no sites have been reported. • Iron Age Iron Age people started to settle in southern Africa c. AD 300, with one of the oldest known sites at Silver Leaves, south east of Tzaneen dating to AD 270. However, Iron Age occupation of the eastern highveld area (including the study area) did not start much before the 1500s. Some sites dating to the Late Iron Age is known to exist to the north west of the study area. • Historic period The historical period in this area starts with the arrival of early missionaries, hunters and traders, followed later by the Voortrekkers, who settled permanently and started to farm in the area and developed a number of towns. The town of Amersfoort was founded in 1876 and proclaimed in 1888. During the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902), some skirmishes took place in the region 7 . 7.2.6. Noise The noise climate (ambient noise condition) in the Amersfoort area is quiet and is representative of a rural (farming) noise district (SANS 10103). There are a number of major noise sources in the area namely the existing Majuba Power Station, the traffic on the main roads, coal trucks transporting coal to Majuba Power Station and the coal supply railway line to the power station. The noise sensitive sites/areas are Amersfoort town (approximately 12 km from the Majuba Power Station) and various farm houses and farm labourer residences in the surrounding area (on farms Palmietspruit; Strydkraal; Tweedepoort, Koppieskraal, Rietfontein; Weiland and Bergvliet). 7.2.7. Traffic There are a number of major roads and secondary roads servicing the study area. These include: i) National Road N11, which links Amersfoort to Volksrust is aligned in a northsouth direction through the eastern sector of the study area. 7 Cloete, P.G, 2000. The Anglo-Boer War: A Chronology. Pretoria: JP van der Walt. Pp. 243. E02.JNB.000308 ESKOM HOLDINGS LIMITED 01 55 08/10/2009
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Part 2 - Eskom

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