GROUNDWORK's QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 5, No 4
December 2003
In This Issue:
Air Quality Project
- The Oilwatch Third General Assembly:Trading ideas to fight the
Fossil Fuel Industry
- Global action to fight Transnational Corporations
Waste Projects
- Communities uniting to 'first do no harm’
- Tackling the root of the problem: groundWork hosts South-South health
care waste skills exchange
Community News
- The Dutch experience of environmental agreements Source: An extract
from a report on the EMCA Study Tour prepared by Jenny Hall
- Barcelona - A solid waste dump: Would you call it home?
Dear Friends
In the last newsletter we welcomed two new groundWorkers - Ravi Dixit
and Heeten Kalan - who are managing our new branch in the USA. They have
an enormous amount of experience to contribute to groundWork, as you will
read in Focus On.
We also welcome our youngest groundWorker, Nokukhanya Sibisi, daughter
of Bathoko, our assistant administrator. Nokukhanya was born on 17th September.
We have missed Bathoko in the office but will welcome her back from her
maternity leave in January. We thank Nelly Makhathini for helping out
while Bathoko is on leave.
Finally, Bobby will be taking a four-month sabbatical from February through
to the end of May 2004 to complete his Masters Degree in Urban and Regional
Planning. Gill will stand in as Acting Director while Bobby is away and
will be ably supported by our growing team of hardworking groundWorkers.
We wish all our friends a peaceful, safe and blessed festive season.
Regards, Linda
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by groundWork Director, Bobby Peek
Relocations, dismissals, gassings and the “stealing” of community land
are the order of the day around the oil refineries in south Durban.
Workers' unions are starting to work together with community organisations
in south Durban to stand against the social and environmental justice
abuses visited on them by industries in the area. Recently 184 contract
workers were dismissed from the Engen oil refinery plant for going on
a strike to demand that they receive the same increases as were recently
granted to a few other workers of similar trade. At a meeting where the
dismissed workers gathered to challenge the joint venture company Brown
and Root/Group Five, the contracting company that dismissed them, the
sentiment was that the community had to act now. “Our fathers should have
done something about this!” was the cry from the workers.
It is a sad day when workers are dismissed because they asked for parity
in wages, but this event has managed to galvanise the various social justice
organisations in the south Durban area to challenge the environmental
and social injustices visited on the community by big business in the
area.
As community people face the insult of big industry dismissing skilled
workers without consideration for their rights and families, Engen continues
to have industrial incidents that impact negatively on community people.
Is it possibly because skilled workers were dismissed that these incidents
occurred? Engen denies this!
Besides the continual pollution, Engen and the eThekwini Council are slowly
but surely seeking to allocate more and more community land for industrial
development. A recent document, which has been made available to groundWork,
highlights that Engen wants the city to stop “further residential development
within a 200 meter zone” around the refinery. What happens to people who
have been living within that zone for decades? Does this mean that they
have to get up and leave?
So, in response to this onslaught of pollution, worker dismissals and
“stealing” of community land, we have labour talking to environmental
activists, we have women speaking to and mobilising religious groupings,
and it is hoped that, in a few decades from now, we will not hear the
cry that: “our fathers should have done something about this,” but we
will rather hear words of gratitude to fathers and mothers who stood up
to protect and preserve their community.
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A never-ending story! From one area to another!
Communities challenge EnviroServ's proposed waste incinerators in Shongweni
by Bobby Peek
Community groups west of Durban recently united across colour lines to
stand firm against JSE-listed EnviroServ's proposal to install two old
incinerators in Shongweni for the purpose of burning health care waste.
Community people from the affluent Hillcrest area joined forces with
the black Salem community to challenge government not to give EnviroServ
permission to proceed with the incinerators. The proposed incinerators
are two old incinerators originating from Isipingo and Bisasar Road in
Durban. The Isipingo incinerator was shut down in August 2000, after groundWork
placed pressure on government to close the plant because it was a threat
to community and environmental health. The Bisasar Road incinerator was
closed down in the mid-nineties due to community pressure and technical
difficulties at the plant.
Protests and signatures
Outraged by this proposal the two communities of Hillcrest and Salem
joined forces to challenge government and EnviroServ. More than 5000 signatures
rejecting this proposal were handed to government representatives and
protests were held outside EnviroServ 's Shongweni hazardous waste landfill
site, where it is proposed that the incinerators be installed. On the
day of the protest, community people had the opportunity to view the two
old incinerators, which have been lying, dismantled at EnviroServ's Shongweni
site for some time. Community members observed partially combusted health
care waste - such as syringes and vials -that has remained in the incinerators
since the last time they were fired up in early 2000 and the mid-1990s
respectively. The fact that the remaining waste in the incinerators is
only partially burnt is an indication that the incinerators did not operate
efficiently and were, therefore, a further health and safety risk.
Changing policy
EnviroServ's proposal comes at a time of evolution of the environmental
health care waste policy and practice in lead article KwaZulu-Natal, where
the provincial government has come out against the practice of incineration
for health and environmental reasons. The Department of Health (DOH) made
known its policy position in November 2002, when it indicated that it
was to move away from incineration to alternative technologies and that
it would start closing down all hospital incinerators. groundWork publicly
commended the department for its position, as groundWork has, since 1999,
been challenging the DOH and other government departments to move away
from incineration.
It was also in 2002 that commercial companies started using safer, non-burn
alternative technologies in the province, as a direct result of pressure
from groundWork, the Health Care Without Harm network, the Global Anti-Incineration
Alliance and other civil society organisations.
groundWork has worked closely with the Legal Resources Centre (Durban)
and the eThekwini Earthlife Africa branch to share expertise with local
communities challenging the incinerator proposals. Alliances have also
been built between the Hillcrest and Salem communities and the South Durban
Community Environmental Alliance, which supported the recent protest march
in Shongweni. The LRC has submitted formal comments on the proposal to
the Department of Agriculture and Environment and a summary of these comments
is found in the corresponding box.
Shift the impact - not changing the practice
The choice of the Shongweni area as the location for the incinerators
is by no means arbitrary. In the mid-nineties, community people challenged
EnviroServ (then Waste-tech) to close down their hazardous landfill site
in Umlazi (south Durban), after it was proven that high hazardous waste
was being illegally dumped at the site. The Umlazi site was closed in
February 1997, and the operations moved to Shongweni. At that time community
people from south Durban and NGOs visited the Shongweni communities and
warned them of the possibility that the Shongweni area could become another
“dumping hotspot”. However, at that time, the communities surrounding
Shongweni were not ready to hear this, or to act against the establishment
of a new landfill site. A few years later EnviroServ was allowed to erect
hazardous waste storage tanks in the Shongweni area. These tanks are used
to store hazardous liquids and do not have lids to prevent vapours from
escaping. And now EnviroServ is proposing to burn health care waste at
the same site. During the recent visit by the protestors to the Shongweni
landfill, exposed sulphur was evident scattered across the working face
of the landfill site. Sulphur is supposed to be covered with sand immediately
after it is dumped to prevent it from becoming airborne.
Government has changed its policy in the province. Is it not time to change
the practice as well? There are safer and more environmentally sustainable
alternatives and EnviroServ knows these alternatives and should be made
to use them.
Why the incinerators should not be installed:
- They are neither needed nor desirable;
- The incinerators have ineffective controls for limiting emissions
of dioxins, mercury and other pollutants;
- EnviroServ's flue gas cooling system would promote the formation
of dioxins;
- The draft EIR (Environmental Impact Report) wrongly concludes that
incineration is the preferred or necessary
method for the treatment and disposal of pharmaceutical and chemical
wastes, including cytotoxic drugs;
- The draft EIR improperly assumes that emissions of dioxins and other
toxic pollutants will remain within the
limits of applicable emissions standards;
- The Air Quality Impact Assessment shows that the incinerator will
emit carcinogenic levels of chromium
and arsenic;
- The draft EIR fails to describe how EnviroServ will monitor stack
emissions of toxic pollutants; The draft EIR fails to investigate or
assess the impacts of toxic pollutant emissions on future development
plans for Shongweni;
- There is a possible breach of regulation 3(1)(a) of GN R11883 (independence
of consultants conducting the
EIR);
- There is a breach of expertise requirement;
- The public participation process was flawed;
- The EIR failed to consider, or improperly considered, alternatives
(including alternative air pollution control
device technologies and alternative sites).
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The Oilwatch Third General Assembly:Trading ideas to fight the Fossil
Fuel Industry
By Ardiel Soeker
The third General Assembly of Oilwatch took place in mid September
in Cartegena, Columbia. Oilwatch is a network of Southern organisations
resisting all forms of fossil fuel (mainly oil and gas) development. Oilwatch
brings together resistance organisations from South and Central America,
Africa and Asia.[1]
The Third General Assembly focused on consolidating Oilwatch's role
as a solidarity vehicle for its members. My greatest learning at the Assembly
was sharing ideas and experiences with resistance activists from around
the world. How similar we all are, yet so different! Deep, stimulating
debate characterised our networking. Often, if you closed your eyes and
ignored the accents, the stories being relayed could have been from an
activist living in Sasolburg or south Durban. Our best discussions took
place deep into the hot South American night. And when we were tired of
theorising and politicising, we celebrated our victories and praised our
heroes through our songs and dance.
Oil activists are at the cold face of resistance and their consciousnesses
are shaped by their daily experiences of the cruelty and inhumanness of
transnational oil corporations. Oilwatch internationalises our experiences,
it adds solidarity and strength to our local struggles. It makes us powerful
and we felt this power as we shared our ideas and experiences. Because
we are fighting the same thing, we share similar values and dreams.
We see the same culprits over an over - Shell, BP, Chevron-Texaco, Halle
Burton, Sasol and Total. We see the same incidents and impacts - leaks,
explosions, continuous flaring, violence, corruption of governments and
indigenous leaders, murder, forced removal of indigenous people from their
land and sustainable livelihoods, destruction of sensitive ecosystems.
In South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia,
Malaysia and the Cameroon injustices in the name of oil are occurring
- all to satisfy and sustain the plastic lifestyle of big cars and MacDonald's
that we call modern living.
Oilwatch's International Secretariat introduced the Oil Atlas to assist
member organisations in their campaigns to resist the destructive activities
of transnational oil companies. The value of the Atlas project is that
it builds solidarity. It involves developing a data base on oil and gas
development. All Oilwatch participants are researchers and beneficiaries
in the project. The three main categories of information are: Oil as wealth;
Oil as Poverty and Resistance to Oil. The Atlas provides a visual picture
of the impact of fossil fuel development around the world using information
from oil companies themselves. Information centers on where existing oil
deposits are located, the extent of these deposits and what developments
are happening or planned with respect to these deposits.
Amongst the oil activists who participated in the Oilwatch International
meeting held recently in Columbia were (from left): Ardiel Soeker (groundWork,
SA), Godwin Ojo (Nigeria), Dudu Mphenyeke (South Africa), Nnimmo Bassey
(Nigeria), Samuel Nquiffo (Cameroon) and Mauricio Sulila (Mozambique).
Wherever you find oil exploration and/or production, you are likely to
find war, poverty, corruption, environmental destruction and the United
States. The US has either: been there and gone; or is there; or is on
its way there, and nothing will stand in its way. Countries that are “lucky”
enough not to have oil deposits buried underneath their land, are not
left to escape the meddling of this greedy industry. They find themselves
in a situation where pipelines or refineries cause misery and destruction.
The Resistance to Oil component of the Atlas captures and documents
the struggles of communities. Indigenous peoples of Columbia and Ecuador
reflected on how oil exploitation has alienated them from their land,
resulting in poverty and the breakdown of their cultures and traditions.
Costa Rica delegates explained how they are battling to protect their
hard fought victory of a moratorium on all oil development in Costa Rica.
Transnational corporations are putting pressure on the Costa Rican Government
to lift the moratorium.
Delegates from Africa reflected on how governments collude with transnational
corporations to ensure access to their respective countries' oil and gas
reserves, often violently suppressing resistance from indigenous people
and perpetuating poverty. Delegates from Asia revealed how offshore oil
and gas exploration has negatively affected the lifestyles of fishing
villages, causing poverty.
The value of the General Assembly to me was undoubtedly the trading
of ideas, contacts, stories, experiences and analyses. The challenge now
is to ensure that my “goods” add value to our local campaigns and activities.
ENDNOTES
1. See www.oilwatch.org.ec
Global action to fight Transnational Corporations
By Ardiel Soeker
I visited the US for seven days in September to attend a meeting between
Shell and representatives of Norco (Louisiana), a community where Shell
has a huge petrochemical facility. The meeting was part of a broader proc
ess wher e Shell US and Shell Inte rnat ional representatives are in dialogue
with the Norco community over the environmental and health impacts of
Shell's Norco refinery. NGO's assisting the Norco community - like the
Refinery Reform Campaign, Louisiana Bucket Brigade and the Environmental
Health Fund - formed part of the meeting. groundWork and the South Durban
Community Environmental Alliance linked up with the Norco process because
of the problems associated with Sapref, a south Durban refinery co-owned
by Shell. The meeting was held to understand what Shell means by air quality
monitoring, health assessments and expanding performance benchmarking
and to see if these align with what community people understand these
issues to mean. Although industry and communities often use the same words,
we can sometimes have different interpretations and values associated
with the same words.
Making the most of this event, my fellow travellers (Desmond D'Sa from
SDCEA, Judy Robinson from Environmental Health Fund, Iris Carter from
Norco, Hilton Kelly from Port Arthur, Anne Rolfes from the Louisiana Bucket
Brigade, Monique Harden and Nathalie Warden from Advocates for Environmental
Human Rights) and I visited a number of mainly African-American communities
living next to industries en route to Norco.
The Mossville Environmental Action Now (MEAN) is a community based, environmental
justice organisation fighting polluting industries in Mossville, Louisiana.
There are fourteen polluting industries in Mossville. Our very own Sasol
now owns and operates one of the dirtiest industries, a petrochemical
facility, in Mossville. Air samples taken by the community have indicated
high levels of toxic gases present in the air around the plant.
Edgar Mouton, Jr, President of MEAN, welcomed us and we shared experiences
of living next to dirty industry. I presented to MEAN members a snap shot
of the horrendous conditions that people of Zamdela and eMbalenhle live
under as neighbours of Sasol in South Africa. We resolved to forge closer
linkages between our different communities. MEAN members promised to visit
Sasolburg and Secunda in 2004. Watch out Sasol, Africans across the globe
are uniting to fight your pollution!
We also stopped off in Port Arthur where another African-American community
is fighting the injustices of profit-driven refineries located right on
their doorstep, spewing poison into the air they breathe. In New Sarpy
and Norco, Louisiana we encountered similar situations.
The struggle for environmental justice is an international struggle. The
south Durban's, Sasolburg's, Port Authur's and Mossville's of the world
are standing side by side to protect their right to a clean and healthy
environment. The transnational corporations like Shell, BP, Sasol, Caltex,
who violate people's human rights, are finding it more and more difficult
to hide and camouflage their damaging actions. We are growing stronger,
wiser and more determined. We will not let our world be destroyed!
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Communities uniting to 'first do no harm’
By Llewellyn Leonard
We are recycling not only to protect the environment, but for economic
reasons as well. Disposal is simply too costly and too dangerous. The
challenge is to redirect the flow of raw materials going to landfill into
strengthening our declining local economies. The solution to pollution
is self-reliant cities and counties. Neil Seldman, Institute for Local
Self-Reliance, 1990
The annual meeting of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) was held this October
at a beautiful, mountainous hot springs resort at Chico, in Montana, USA.
The global HCWH network aims to reform the environmental practices of
the health care industry, without compromising patient safety or care,
so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm
to public health and the environment. The aim of the meeting was not only
to strengthen the global coalition against unsustainable health care practices,
but also to share and celebrate members' achievements in helping health
care facilities to 'first do no harm' and in promoting model health care
facilities.
Over 69 participants from countries such as the USA, Mexico, South Africa,
Argentina, the Philippines and France attended the meeting. In between
networking and meeting we had the opportunity to build friendships whilst
horse riding, wolf and bear watching and swimming in the hot springs.
As in previous such gatherings, time was made for the different regions
(Africa, Asia, South America, etc) to report back on progress with campaigns,
the development of self-sustaining regional coalitions, and the main opportunities
and obstacles being faced. This helped participants understand the type
of issues other members were dealing with. Training sessions covered such
topics as toxicology and epidemiology, worker safety, alternative techno
logies and the phasing out of mercury and PVC. These training sessions
were presented by HCWH's own experts in the field, such as Peter Orris,
Jorge Emmanuel, Jamie Harvie and Susan Wilburn to name a few. It was incredible
for me to learn so much additional information on these subjects in such
a short space of time. This has since inspired me to continue to provide
further insights into better hospital waste management in African health
institutions.
I felt fortunate to be amongst this great and inspirational family, which
has many experts in the field who are rich in experience, having been
involved in the movement since the beginning. Through HCWH, communities
from all over the world are implementing effective solutions to the poisoning
of our health.
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Tackling the root of the problem: groundWork hosts South-South health
care waste skills exchange
By Llewellyn Leonard
I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away
things we could use. Mother Teresa (1910-1997), A Gift for God, 1975
Last month groundWork played host to a health care waste expert from
India who visited South Africa and Mozambique to share her skills and
knowledge on environmentally responsible health care waste management.
Ratna Singh works for Srishti, an NGO based in New Delhi, India, which,
since 1995, has done great pioneering work to transform some of India's
worst hospitals into model institutions. Such expertise from India has
been essential for South Africa and Mozambique, since the situation in
India is similar to that in Africa.
We used Ratna's expertise to help us workshop a new manual which groundWork
hopes to publish soon, entitled, 'Managing hospital waste: A guide for
Southern African health care institutions'. NGO representatives and hospital
personnel from the Edendale and Ngwelezane provincial hospitals joined
us in workshopping the contents of the proposed manual. The participants
also had the opportunity to visit groundWork's two model hospitals -Edendale
and Ngwelezane - which will be used as case studies in the manual. Participan
ts witness ed the improvements made at the institutions since groundWork's
first interventions in 2001. The hospitals gave insight into additional
challenges they were facing (e.g. donations of digital thermometers) whilst
Srishti recommended further improvements that could be made at the institutions.
The team also travelled to Maputo, Mozambique, where we visited two hospitals:
the Maputo Central and Mavelane hospitals. We were shocked to see that
waste management in Maputo is non-existent, with the result that infectious
health care waste is dumped on municipal dumpsites where people who scavenge
on the sites are exposed to the contaminated waste.
Another one bites the dust. groundWork’s Llewellyn
Leonard stands in front of a demolished hospital incinerator outside a
KZN provincial hospital. In line with international trends, there is a
growing commitment within government to close down inefficient, polluting
waste incinerators and to
replace them with “greener” technologies.
We also met with government officials and were sad to hear that the
Department of Health, in a misguided attempt to address the problem of
waste, had invested huge amounts of money in purchasing two incinerators.
I felt really angry that the Mozambican government had taken such a decision
since incinerators create dangerous emissions like dioxins and furans
that are carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in nature. Incinerating waste also
destroys resources which can potentially generate income. Incineration
is being phased out world wide including in South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal
and Western Cape) and India.
Overall, I felt Ratna and Srishti's assistance from India to be of tremendous
benefit since this exchange between two Southern countries shifted the
reliance away from being dominated by experts from the north. It has also
been essential in terms of developing country solutions for Southern countries.
A report back on this visit will be formulated by groundWork and Srishti
to advise those institutions which were visited on how to better manage
their hospital wastes.
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Spills and Leaks - Why is there no action?
By Bobby Peek
The petrochemical spills and leaks in south Durban continue to occur,
but still government fails to take action. Must the people of south Durban
die before government steps in? Rather than prosecute these companies,
government continues on its track of developing Environmental Management
Cooperation Agreements (EMCAs) that will allow these companies to drift
further away from the law as we know it and to literally self-regulate
and continue dumping their pollution in our air, water and on our lands.
The leaks continue.
The campaign by civil society to get Shell to clean up its act at Sapref
in south Durban is well documented (see previous groundWork newsletters).
However, despite meetings at the Shell international head quarters in
London and The Hague, and also meetings with the chairpersons of Shell
and BP South Africa, polluting incidents at the refinery continue to impact
upon south Durban.
In September the Durban port authorities noticed oil floating on the water
surface in the Durban harbour. After alerting the various oil companies
in the area, pressure testing was done on fuel pipelines. It was then
discovered that one of Sapref's pipelines was not holding pressure. Furthermore,
the oil and water mix that was used to pressure-test the pipelines was
unexpectedly released into a canal that runs into the Durban harbour.
Desmond D'Sa and Avena Bhika, representatives of the South Durban
Community Environmental Alliance, point towards oil pollution in the Durban
harbour from Shell and BP facilities, 8 October 2003.
As usual, very limited information was given to community people and
organisations in the area and, as a result, civil society had to struggle
to get the truth on the issue. And Shell bemoaned the fact that civil
society sought to place pressure on them through the media.
More meetings
On 15 October, groundWork and the South Durban Community Environmental
Alliance (SDCEA) met with the chairpersons of the South African operations
of Shell and BP to discuss the problems at Sapref. Unbeknown to us, at
about the same time, these two gentlemen were arranging a meeting with
our national parliament politicians for the following week. Their response,
no doubt, to the politicians' questions about community concerns would
have been:“Do not worry - we are talking to the community”. However, knowledge
of the proposed parliamentary meeting got to SDCEA and groundWork and
we were able to submit copies of the report “Leaking Pipelines - Shell
in South Africa” to the politicians before they met with the oil companies.
This report (reviewed in groundWork's June 2003 newsletter) provided evidence
to the politicians that Shell is causing unnecessary pollution in south
Durban.
Government still pushing self-regulation
Whilst industry continues to lack good environmental governance in South
Africa, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) continues
to hold on to the notion that Environmental Management Cooperation Agreements
(EMCAs) can solve the environmental problems facing communities living
on the industrial fence-line. In September, a South African study tour
to the Netherlands with representation from industry, communities, NGO's,
government and academics, interrogated whether EMCAs, as used in the Netherlands,
could be successfully applied in the SA situation. groundWork's 2001 research
findings on the unsuitability of EMCAs in the current South African situation
(see www.groundwork.org.za) stood firm and civil society representatives
where vindicated on our positions. The outcomes of the study tour are
reflected in the adjacent box. It is abundantly clear that, if South African
civil society is going to push for accountability from government and
corporates, EMCAs are not the route to go. They will slow government down
in dealing with the environmental governance problems presently experienced
and will place immense pressure on environmental departments in South
Africa who have the mandate to protect people's health from improper development.
As groundWork has said since 2001, let us get our house in order before
we start working on EMCA's that, even in places like Holland, have proved
difficult to implement.
ENDNOTES
1. The South African Petroleum Refinery (SAPREF), located in south Durban,
is owned by Shell and BP in a 50-50 joint venture. The refinery is managed
using Shell's operational procedures.
The Dutch experience of environmental agreements
Source: An extract from a report on the EMCA Study Tour prepared
by Jenny Hall
Here are some of the findings made by NGO representatives during the
September 2003 study tour to the Netherlands to evaluate the effectiveness
of environmental agreements in that country.
Not all environmental agreements have been implemented successfully in
the Netherlands. Although reasons for the lack of success were not identified
in detail, it appears that they included the following:
. • difficulty obtaining the required number of signatories to operationalise
agreements in those sectors which include a large number of small companies/operations;
. • international initiatives - such as carbon emissions trading - placed
some of the agreements under pressure; and
. • disagreement within the sector as to how targets should be achieved
and how the burden should be equitably allocated.
Furthermore, the implementation and enforcement of some sectoral agreements
has been difficult as the agreements are signed by representatives of
the sector and not by all companies in the sector. This led to a situation
where some companies that were part of a broader sectoral agreement but
which were not direct signatories of the agreement did not feel bound
by the agreement.
Performance against targets
The agreements have not been successful in achieving all targets for
environmental improvements. For example, it appears that the 2010 targets
for nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide targets in certain sectors may
not be reached. (Some companies indicated that they are looking to the
emissions trading regime to achieve these targets). The dairy industry
also indicated that it would not meet its methane targets.
Access to information
The licensing procedures in the Netherlands are subject to public input
and, therefore, interested and affected parties have access to information
and some influence on the contents of the licenses. However, the NGO representatives
indicated that they had experienced difficulties accessing information
in respect of environmental agreements as the agreements often stipulate
that the information is confidential.
Inter-government cooperation
Responsibility for the environment falls on three levels of government.
However, it appears that, although agreements may be entered into at different
levels of government, the national level agreements have consequences
for the work and policy implementation at the other levels of government.
In this regard it was noted that some difficulties had been experienced
with national government concluding, for example, the energy agreement,
without discussing it with the provinces.
Institutional implications
Speakers indicated that the agreements increased the administrative requirements
of companies and government. Although a facilitating organisation has
been established by the government to collate the industry and company
reports for parliament, a local government representative indicated that
there was still an increase in workload at the local level.
Ambition level of the agreements
The Dutch NGOs indicated that the ambition level in certain of the agreements
was so low as to be questionable. For example, they indicated that the
levels set in the energy efficiency target would probably have been achieved
without the agreement. The concept introduced in the energy efficiency
agreement of being “top of the world” was also problematic in terms of
the resources spent on benchmarking and the criteria used for benchmarking.
Compliance with minimum standards
All agreements are subordinate to any legislative requirements or standards,
including the requirement that best available technology be implemented.
However, in certain instances, the risk of relaxing existing requirements
emerges. For example, in the coal agreement, the priority was the reduction
of CO and efforts in respect of reducing other pollutants were relaxed.
This issue is currently the subject of litigation. In another instance,
the government had indicated that greenhouses would be exempt from the
water legislation for a period of five years. This was successfully challenged
by the NGOs in court.
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Barcelona - A solid waste dump: Would you call it home?
By Mpumelelo Ncwadi*
To a normal yet untrained human eye, the Barcelona community on the periphery
of Gugulethu Township in Cape Town is just one of many such communities
which are reshaping the South African urban landscape and which some public
commentators have termed the alternative South African national flower.
Even a bird's eye view from a flight from Cape Town International Airport
reveals nothing of the potential calamity hidden beneath the shacks in
this informal settlement of a thousand or so households. Barcelona is
built on a derelict waste dump, which by our new environmental standards
should have been rehabilitated in accordance with the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry's (DWAF) Minimum Requirements for Waste Disposal
by Landfill. Instead a poor community has been allowed to create homes
with the local authorities providing full communal services (water, sanitation,
electricity and a pending community centre) in the midst of the invisible
hazard of methane emissions from the decomposing waste beneath the community
structures.
Barcelona is not alone; the Nelson Mandela Metropole in Port Elizabeth
has allowed a similar situation to occur on one of its old waste dumpsites.
These actions are setting a wrong precedence that flies in the face of
our Constitutional provisions and environmental legislation with respect
to civil liberties and environmental justice. One year after we proudly
hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development we seem to have forgotten
two major lessons from that conference - half-baked solutions do not work
and pay attention to matters of environmental justice.
In spite of available knowledge regarding the hazards associated with
landfill gas - methane and carbon dioxide generated by decomposing waste
- those with the information have chosen to remain silent about the danger,
probably hoping that, for as long as the community is ignorant about the
danger beneath their houses, the community is unlikely to demand better
homes and a better living environment. Barcelona is now receiving basic
services from the Council, but the provision of these services should
have been subjected to the standard Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
process. Sadly, the provision of services in Barcelona was exempted from
EIA regulations.
Why? One suspects that the EIA process would have publicly exposed the
situation and all the associated risks. So, it could be presumed that
the local authority chose to act unilaterally without public participation
in the process.
Some may argue that the site might not be generating gas at all, to which
my immediate response is to say: “in God Almighty I trust, all others
please bring scientific data to substantiate your arguments”. I believe
that decisions that are likely to affect communities, rich or poor, must
be based on sound scientific data and I also believe that neither the
Cape Metropolitan Council nor the Nelson Mandela Metropole have sufficient
data to justify their respective decisions to allow the communities in
question to continue residing on these waste dumps.
Living in a shack is in itself an awful experience. To be compelled by
circumstances beyond one's control to live in a shack on top of a life
threatening waste dumpsite is inhumane. It is a situation that begs the
question about the equitability of some of our Constitutional guarantees
and the fairness of our environmental legislation. If free people with
inalienable rights to a clean and healthy environment are compelled and
encouraged by local authorities to ignore the risk to their own lives,
as a carrot to get access to basic services, maybe the Human Rights Commission
should provide elucidation regarding the perceived violation of the human
rights of these communities.
I hope that my comments are not misconstrued to constitute an attack
on the local authorities mentioned, but rather they are treated as an
offer of a different perspective which I know that these affected communities
would welcome. I do not believe that the City of Cape Town has to wait
until someone is killed - as was the case with the Chapman's Peak rock
fall - before the right action is taken. Consensus is always possible
without litigation.
* Mpumelelo Ncwadi is an environmental engineer with a B.Sc in environmental
civil engineering from the University of Texas, and a director of Tihago
Environmental Management. He writes in his personal capacity.
By Greenfly
Anyone else notice it's election season?
President Thabo Mbeki went to this year's Congress of the Socialist
International (SI), which was held in Brazil. When he came back, he wrote
about it in his weekly column for the 'ANC Today' (Volume 3, No. 43, 31
October - 6 November 2003). His columns tend to be very long so we can
only extract a couple of bits to try and convey the flavour of the whole
(if you want to read the whole thing, try: www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday).
Mbeki recognises that there are “millions of people [in South Africa]
who are poor. These are ordinary working people whose problems cannot
be solved by reliance on 'the market'… The same can be said of the greater
part of our continent, Africa”.
Indeed, the theme is developed so that Mbeki is quite unambiguous. He
says: “The critically important task to end the poverty and underdevelopment
in which millions of Africans are trapped, inside and outside our country,
cannot be accomplished by the market. If we were to follow the prescriptions
of neo-liberal market ideology, we would abandon the masses of our people
to permanent poverty and underdevelopment”.
Gosh! Does this mean the ANC is going cold turkey on its addiction to
“the prescriptions of neo-liberal market ideology”? Can we look forward
to a new era of socialist governance aimed at undoing the damage done
by the neo-liberal GEAR strategy and its attendant policies and practices?
Probably not.
In the first place it's probably important to know that the 'Socialist
International' is largely made up of social democratic and 'socialist'
parties that have implemented neo-liberal policies in government and who
get together at these Congresses to denounce neo-liberalism!
Secondly, dressing up the thoroughly neo-liberal Nepad approach in the
radical chic language of opposing neo-liberalism, fails to hide the tart's
slip. For example, Mbeki goes on to say:
“…African development, the defeat of the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment
on our continent, cannot be achieved without resource transfers from outside
the continent. For this reason, the call has been made correctly and repeatedly,
that Africa needs increased overseas development assistance (ODA) and
foreign direct investment [FDI]”.
Now let's be clear - ODA and FDI are NOT about transferring resources
to Africa. They're precisely the opposite - simply current forms of an
old pattern to drain resources out of Africa to secure profit in the North.
If it weren't so, capitalists wouldn't bother making the investments,
would they?!
In addition, until not so long ago, it was only left-wing critics who
regularly pointed to the Mbeki government's characteristic ability to
'talk left but act right'. But now it seems that observers from the centre
and the right have also seen that Mbeki's 'left talk' should not be misunderstood
as having any direct relation with government's intentions or actions.
Harald Pakendorf, a 'political analyst' who writes for First National
Bank (www.fnb.co.za, 12 November 2003), certainly wasn't fooled. In fact,
as he points out, nor was 'the market' fooled into thinking that we are
seeing a “bold statement of a reversal in fundamental economic approach”.
Pakendorf reminds us that “Thabo Mbeki is a pragmatic man and a realist”
and that, while the fundamental macro-economic framework remains firmly
in place, it is useful politically - and especially in a pre-election
period like the current - to “verbally denounce that which makes your
alliance partners - the SACP and Cosatu unhappy [because] … you take one
issue off the table”. In short, says Pakendorf, “Mbeki is doing the old
classical political thing: talking left but doing right”.
Pakendorf also points out that pragmatic realists step up government
expenditure in areas like welfare and infrastructure just before an election.
Accordingly, Cabinet recently approved a business plan for an 'Expanded
Public Works Programme' (EPWP) which claims to target employing one million
unemployed people over five years in a number of labour intensive infrastructure
and other programmes. According to Business Day reporter Lynn Bolin, “some
of the approved environmental and cultural programmes that would also
contribute to the EPWP were the Department of Agriculture's Land Care
Programme, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism's Faranani
- Pushing Back the Frontiers of Poverty Programme, People and Parks, Coastal
Care, Sustainable Land-based livelihoods, Cleaning up South Africa, Growing
A Tourism Economy Programmes, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's
Working for Water, and the Wetlands and Fire Programmes”.
Greenfly asked a colleague what she made of the fact that programmes under
the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism featured quite strongly,
as did others (like Working for Water) that have an environmental component.
Taken together with the infrastructure emphasis, does this suggest that
in some distorted way, government recognises that the pursuit of environmental
justice may have a developmental role to play? Sadly Greenfly's colleague
seems to be about as jaded and cynical as I.
Here's the reply:
“What do we make of DEAT's prominence? - It certainly seems modelled on
the deep thinking that went into Nepad - where the environment is mainly
represented as opportunities for 'mass employment' arising from: eradicating
alien vegetation; fire prevention (Nepad's response to climate change);
combating desertification; and cross-border conservation making tourism
jobs. Oh, it does mention coastal management and wetlands without mentioning
‘mass employment'. Just in case you think I may have left something out
-that is it - the complete list of Nepad's environmental 'priorities'”!
Nonetheless, we must claim our victories! Even if the election spin
is nothing more than hot air, let's at least recognise that Mbeki is making
gestures to the political left for this election. This signals that that's
the direction from which the heat is coming. Even if we haven't shifted
the balance of forces decisively in our favour yet, there's every incentive
to build the pressure and deepen the struggle! Viva!
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groundWork USA
Heeten Kalan and Ravi Dixit
Heeten Kalan and Ravi Dixit joined the groundWork team in August 2003
when groundWork expanded by merging with an environmental justice organisation
in the USA, the South African Exchange Programme on Environmental Justice
(SAEPEJ). At the time Heeten was the director of SAEPEJ, and Ravi was
its coordinator. Heeten and Ravi are now Director and Coordinator of groundWork
USA respectively and are already vital members of the groundWork team.
HEETEN KALAN was born in South Africa in the former Boer town of Louis
Trichardt, the youngest of three siblings. At the age of 16 he was awarded
a scholarship to complete his schooling at the Lester Pearson United World
College in British Columbia, Canada.
At the age of 18 he moved to the United States for his undergraduate
degree in political science and history. Heeten was a Senior Fellow at
Dartmouth College (1992) during which time he researched the history of
the South African black trade union movement. He then obtained his Masters
in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Heeten's first formal occupation was with the now defunct National Toxics
Campaign Fund. He then founded and ran the Boston-based South African
Exchange Program on Environmental Justice (SAEPEJ) until it merged with
groundWork. He is also the Program Officer for Environmental Justice at
the New World Foundation and currently divides his time between the foundation,
groundWork USA and his growing family.
Heeten is one of those people who not only dreams of a world at peace
but who has dedicated much of his talents and energies to supporting peace
processes in South Africa, Mozambique and Northern Ireland. He has been
active with the US-based Mozambique Solidarity Office and was co-editor
of Baobab Notes, which followed the Mozambique Peace Process. In the last
8 years he has visited Northern Ireland 10 times, which included his participation
as an International Human Rights Observer in Portadown during the Orange
March in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Heeten's own piece of peace is his home, which he shares with his wife
Jenny and son Ravi, and his garden, in which he passionately cultivates
hundreds of lilies every year.
To groundWork, Heeten brings his ten years of experience in the environmental
and social justice arenas, as well as his zealous and unwavering commitment
to social justice.
RAVI DIXIT was born 24 years ago in Boston, Massachusetts. After school
he completed a degree in Social Studies at Harvard College. Whilst at
Harvard he worked for several non-profit organisations, including Project
HIP-HOP and the Cambridge Youth Peace and Justice Corps.
After graduating he travelled to India for three months before joining
SAEPEJ. Whilst at SAEPEJ he has been studying part-time to gain the credits
needed to attend Medical School. The highlight of his time at SAEPEJ was
organising, in conjunction with groundWork, Project X-Change - a youth
environmental justice exchange between polluted communities in South Africa
and the United States. This took place in mid-2002 and entailed five youths
from polluted townships in South Africa, visiting seven different communities
of colour in the USA.
In between working and studying, Ravi is a volunteer teacher at the Suffolk
County House of Corrections, where, for the past five years, he has co-taught
once a week on the history and literature of Africans on the continent
and in the diaspora. He also volunteers at the Brookside Community Health
Center, shadowing a primary care physician in adult medicine and her support
staff.
On the lighter side, Ravi enjoys old Hindi film music, practices Chinese
martial arts and loves to dance. He lives in Boston in a neighbourhood
called Jamaica Plain, in the home he grew up in, with his parents, older
brother, two cousins and brother in law.
Ravi thrives on hard work, whether he is in the office, a martial arts
studio, a dance floor or serving in his community. His energy, zest for
life and strong social conscience will certainly enrich the groundWork
team.
The Tongaat Commission of Enquiry into the Petronet fuel pipeline rupture
The Commission will be sitting again between the 19th -23rd January
2004, to finalise its investigation into the reasons for the gas pipeline
rupture next to a Tongaat school in December 2001. Community people have
been adamant that they do not want the gas pipeline running through their
neighbourhood anymore and that it must be re-routed. groundWork has been
involved in presenting evidence to this Commission and has been assisted
by attorney, Ilan Lax.
Strategic Environmental Assessment for the Vaal Triangle
The Free State and Gauteng provincial governments are taking over the
management of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that was started
by industry in the Vaal Triangle area in 2000. The central objective of
this SEA is to improve environmental quality in the Vaal Triangle. Communities'
experiences of SEAs have not been pleasant in South Africa. The south
Durban SEA, which was completed in 1999 and was led by the parastatal
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), called for the
relocation of people out of their neighbourhoods to make way for more
industrial development. Naturally that was met by an outcry from residents
whose families have lived there for a couple of generations.
It is hoped that government will take immediate action against those industries
that are so obviously causing pollution problems in the Vaal Triangle,
rather than wait for the outcomes of the SEA, which could take years.
19th Anniversary of Bhopal disaster
The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, a coalition of environmental
and social justice organisations, has declared the upcoming 19th anniversary
- 3rd December 2003 - of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal as
the Global Day of Action Against Corporate Crime.
Nineteen years after the world's worst industrial disaster in Bhopal,
India, survivors and their children are still battling against an insensitive
government to bring a criminal corporation to address its pending liabilities.
Meanwhile, Union Carbide - the company accused of the disaster that has
killed over 20 000 people to date - is now a wholly owned subsidiary of
American transnational Dow Chemicals. Dow says it has only inherited Carbide's
assets, not its liabilities.
The Bhopal struggle - probably the longest-standing fight for justice
by survivors of an industrial disaster - epitomises the worst abuses of
globalisation and the challenges involved in holding corporations accountable.
For more information see www.bhopal.net.
Respiratory problems linked to pollution in Cape Town
Cape Town is taking part in a global study called the International
Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). Findings emerging
from this study show a comparatively high prevalence of allergic diseases
in school-going children from the northern communities of Cape Town. Results
showed that almost a quarter (23,7%) of tested children had suffered from
asthma at some stage and a staggering 64,6% of children had suffered from
hay fever.
This study was conducted on the basis of the surrounding communities'
concern that pollution from the neighbouring Caltex refinery was possibly
impacting on their health. The study has shown a measurable health effect
- primarily more frequent asthmatic symptoms - associated with those times
when there has been an estimated increase in emissions from the refinery.
This indicates a substantive basis for community concern, notwithstanding
the relatively modest levels of ambient air pollution regularly measured
in the area.
It was found that the meteorologically estimated petrochemical emissions
from the Caltex refinery do have an impact on the community in the northwest
suburbs of Cape Town. The University of Cape Town conducted the study.
International Environmental Health Congress in Durban
Durban, South Africa, is to host the 8th World Congress on Environmental
Health on the 22-27 February 2004. groundWork will use this opportunity
of having various environmental health specialists in the city to run
parallel events for communities and non-profit organisations. groundWork
will hold a community skillshare, speak-out and workshop on the 21 and
22 February to give community people who cannot make it into the conference
an opportunity to work with and hear some of the environmental experts
that will be delivering papers at the conference.
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 Business
rules: Who pays the price? published by Friends of the
Earth International and Corporate Europe Observatory,
August 2003, Mexico and Uruguay, 27 pages, A4
Through a series of case studies from around the world this informative
publication focuses on the powerful influence that corporates have on
the World Trade Organisation, and how this influence negatively impacts
upon people and the environment. The report argues that large corporations,
generally based in Northern countries, have been instrumental in developing
WTO agreements that have caused environmental destruction and human suffering,
for the most part in Southern Countries.
The report covers the impact of WTO agreements and business lobby groups
in four areas: food and the environment; access to essential medicines;
control over foreign investment; and access to essential services.
Case studies demonstrate how corporates often seek to undermine or weaken
international agreements aimed at protecting people and the environment.
For example lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry around the TRIPs (Trade-Related
aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement has meant limited access
to some essential medicines (particularly those used to treat pneumonia
and cardiovascular disease) in poorer countries. Similarly, the US agribusiness
lobby are pressuring the US government to use the WTO to break open the
restrictions which some governments have placed on GMOs.
In the pipeline:
19 December 2003 - 4 January 2004: groundWork SA office will be closed.
The groundWork USA office will
remain open save for 25th December and 1st January.
16 - 21 January 2004: World Social Forum, Mumbai, India. For more information
see:
www.forumsocialmundial.org.br.
1 February - 1 June 2004: groundWork Director, Bobby Peek will be on
sabbatical.
21-22 February 2004: groundWork is hosting an Environmental Health
workshop. For more information contact Llewellyn Leonard on llewellyn@groundwork.org.za
or 033-3425662.
March 2004: groundWork will be coordinating an Environmental Justice
Exchange which will bring community members from USA communities suffering
from environmental injustices to South Africa to meet with people of colour
living in similar conditions in South African communities.
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