HOW GREEN IS MY ACSA?

HOW nice of the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) to report on the complete rehabilitation of the little vlei that it filled with Jet A1 some months ago. Spigot’s mind is re-assured by such continued affirmations of ACSA’s almost carnal love of all things bright and beautiful. May ACSA continue to rub noses with frogs, venerate insects, hug trees and invite bunnies to graze on its runway verges. However, why does ACSA refuse to admit that OR Tambo International Airport is sitting on a 30 million litre lake of aircraft fuels sloshing around in the shifting clay basin that was once Mr Agliotti senior’s brickfield? And why does ACSA deny that the runway supply pipelines have been leaking for nearly 30 years because they were built on unstable clay substrate? And what about the discount “brown paraffin” that was, until not so long ago, being sold in the townships surrounding the airport, reportedly supplied by contractors who were sinking wells on the periphery of this ‘lake’ to stop it pluming into the boreholes of fence-line communities? Next time your plane lands at OR Tambo, listen out for that squelching sound as your flight touches down. Welcome, all 2010 visitors.