28 November 2007

Resisting Pollution: Sharing Experiences of South Durban!

The South Durban Community Environmental Alliance [1] (SDCEA) and groundWork [2] will be hosting a three day technical exchange programme, training affected community representatives from the pollution hotspot areas of Pietermaritzburg, the Vaal Triangle, Rustenburg, Secunda and Witbank. It is within these areas that people have been mobilising against polluting industries.

The main focus of the community exchange is to equip community people with the understanding of how community resistance has grown in south Durban, how that resistance led to the development of the multi-point plan (MPP) and what the failures and successes of the MPP are. Furthermore, the exchange will inform community representatives about the reasons behind all the monitoring, registration certificate (permit) processes of industries, evaluation, interpretation and investigations of air quality data in south Durban.

The workshop will also focus on understanding community mobilisation and how to foster this mobilisation to ensure that there is a meaningful change in the lives of people living in polluted areas.

The main areas of focus in the three day programme are:

• Understanding industrial flaring;
• Experiences of participation in air quality management process, such as the MPP, but also the Vaal Triangle Priority Area process;
• Understanding the health study approaches undertaken in south Durban;
• Working on air pollution monitoring systems, including the Bucket Brigade and the systems developed under the MPP; and
• Understanding how GIS can be used to inform community struggles.

Community air quality campaigners will be taking their experiences back to the various “hot spot” areas that they come from.

The media is invited to attend.

This work is supported by the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) as part of the Urban Environmental Management Programme.

See Agenda

For more information please call:

• Siziwe Khanyile, groundWork: 073 830 8173
• Farida Khan, SDCEA: 084 700 9585 / 031 46 1991

Footnotes:

[1] South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) is an environmental justice organization based in south Durban. It is made up of 16 affiliate organizations, and it has been active since its formation in 1996. It contributes to the struggle against Environmental Racism for Environmental Justice and Environmental Health.

[2] groundWork is a environmental justice organisation working with community people from around South Africa and increasingly in Southern Africa on environmental justice and human rights issues focusing on Air Pollution, Waste (including Health Care Waste) and Corporate Abuse. groundWork is a member of Friends of the Earth International. www.groundwork.org.za.