PRESS RELEASE - 11 January 2002
South Durban Communities Establish
New Air Monitoring Program Aimed at Massive Industrial Pollution Clean-up
Committee to Track Pollution Incidents,
Test Air and Publish Results
(South Durban, SA) Communities
in the heavily polluted South Duran Basin yesterday announced an intensive
new program to map and monitor toxic industries that contribute to serious
health problems in the area. The new program will enlist impacted
community members to compile pollution logs and take air samples over
the next year. A committee of residents was formed to take immediate
action after an intensive 2-day workshop in South Durban over the weekend.
“South Durban is taking
action immediately to expand air monitoring efforts by gathering evidence
of illegal and unhealthy pollution that threatens the health of thousands
of children and adults everyday,” said Desmond D’Sa, long time resident
In South Durban, and Chairperson of the South Durban Community Environmental
Alliance (SDCEA). “We can no longer wait for government and industry
to act on their promises; enough is enough!”
Over the weekend, residents
were trained on a variety of evidence gathering tactics to document
hazardous pollution in their neighborhoods. They will use proven
procedures of log books, photographs, video and “bucket air sampling”
to collect evidence of toxic spills, smoking flares, explosions and
fires that plague South Durban. The group plans to publish monthly reports
on air pollution and toxic releases in local papers to educate the community
of the health threats.
Residents also went out
on an air patrol through the South Durban area, and visited the Sasol
Fibres plant, the Shell/BP oil refinery (SAPREF) and the Industrial
Oil Processes plant. Residents witnessed and smelled first hand
pollution from these industries. Practice air samples were taken
around these plants.
Over the next few weeks,
groundWork and local groups will host a series of community workshops
in South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland in a total of six polluted
communities, home to thousands people. The air-monitoring program
is a partnership of groundWork, SAEPEJ and new non-profit organisation
Global Community Monitor (GCM), which is directed by the innovator of
the Bucket Brigade program, Denny Larson.
“This new expansion of
communities’ right to know throughout Southern Africa is in direct response
to the failure of industry and governments to monitor and clean up toxic
pollution that trespasses into fence-line communities,” said Ardiel
Soeker of groundWork. “The new Bucket Brigade effort will
be reaching thousands of families for the first time so that they can
demand clean air.”
Cooperation on the Air
Quality Project will provide groundWork and its partnering organisations
in Southern Africa with an additional tool (the bucket brigade)
to assess the air quality in their -communities, develop community based
monitoring systems and to increase the skills and knowledge of community
representatives to negotiate with government and industry for the improvement
in community air quality. GCM will assist groundWork and
local community organizations in developing community based monitoring
systems in each of the above areas for community members.
“The success of the South
Africa Bucket Brigade has increased the demand for community air monitoring
around the globe,” said Denny Larson of GCM. “Now communities
in the developing world want to know what they are breathing and how
to get corporations to clean up their act.”
The 2002 air monitoring
initiative seeks to build on the success of the previous Bucket Brigade
effort in 2000, and expand the power of industrial communities in environmental
decision-making. By providing the tools and training to communities
suffering from toxic pollution overload, they can establish community
environmental protection systems.
For more information
contact: Ardiel Soeker (groundWork) or Denny Larson (GCM) on
021-761 8669 or Bobby Peek (groundWork) 082 464 1383.
Please see the attached
photograph. This photograph and others are available in a higher
resolution free of charge for use in other publications.
###
Global Community Monitor
offers key technical assistance to industrial communities worldwide
to contribute to the growing counter-globalization movement. Through
direct community-to-community trainings, the global movement will be
strengthened as a result of local capacity building. GCM seeks to link
similar communities to their counterparts globally, in their common
struggle to hold corporations accountable to the lofty principles used
to polish their image, especially oil and chemical companies.
groundWork
seeks to improve the quality of life of vulnerable people in South
Africa (and potentially Southern Africa) through assisting civil society
to have a greater impact on environmental governance.
SAEPEJ is a Boston-based
non-profit organization which focuses on the effects of toxics and the
deteriorating environment on the health and daily lives of communities
in South Africa, and aims to bridge communities in the US with their
counterparts in South Africa around environmental justice.
Web sites:
www.groundwork.org.za,
http://www.igc.org/saepej/,
www.gcmonitor.org
