| PRESS RELEASE
3 April 2003
Communities and parliamentarians
discuss air pollution in SA's pollution "hot spots"
(Cape Town) This afternoon residents from South
Africa’s pollution hot spots met with parliamentarians in Cape Town to
share their experiences of industrial air pollution, and to hand over
a memorandum to the parliamentarians calling for specific
actions to be taken to bring about a reduction of industrial air pollution
in South Africa’s pollution hot spots. The afternoon ended with
the parliamentarians and community members taking a “toxic tour” of Cape
Town’s northwest areas, in particular Table View (location of the Caltex
refinery) and Vissershoek (location of a toxic landfill site).
For the past two days about 20 community members from
South Africa’s pollution hot spots have been attending a workshop in Cape
Town focused on how to reduce industrial air pollution in their neighbourhoods.
The participants have been drawn from Secunda, Sasolburg, south Durban,
Richards Bay, Vanderbijl Park and the North West areas of Cape Town.
The workshop was organised by groundWork.
This afternoon representatives from two affected communities
– Morning Star, which is adjacent to Vissershoek, and Steel Valley which
is adjacent to Iscor in Vanderbijl Park, gave presentations to the parliamentarians
on the impact that air pollution has had on the daily lives of the people
living in their respective communities.
Samson Mokoena from the Steel
Valley Crisis Committee spoke of the enormous suffering he and his
neighbours have experienced due to Iscor’s contamination of groundwater
and consequently borehole water – the only source of water in the area.
“We have to use this water for drinking, cooking, washing and everything
else. There are no water pipes in our area, so we have no choice but to
drink the toxic water,” he said. “We used to have a lively and productive
community, but now most people have moved away because the water has made
them sick. Their cattle also get sick and die and their vegetables
and crops die.”
The community is in the process of instituting a class
action to claim damages from Iscor for the health, property and other
losses they have suffered.
Advocate Paul Homann presented on mercury poisoning
amongst residents of the Morning Star community, adjacent to the Vissershoek
toxic landfill site. Other pollutants also detected at high levels
in wind blown dust in the area included aluminium (which exceeded the
acceptable limit by almost 3000 times) and arsenic.
Following the community presentations, Desmond D’SA
of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance read out the participants’
memorandum on Air Quality Management of Pollution Hot Spots in South Africa.
For more information contact Ardiel Soeker on 0829408669
Memorandum to the portfolio Committee
on Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Air Quality Management of Pollution Hotspots in South
Africa
Honourable Members, we address you in the context
of emerging legislation on Air Quality Management. We are mindful
of the provisions of Section 24 of the National Constitution (the right
to an environment which is not harmful to health and well-being)., the
National Environmental Management Act, and national consensus around the
principle of sustainable Development.
1. We request you to consider specific provision in
the forthcoming legislation to address the operations of scheduled activities.
This will facilitate effective environmental management since scheduled
activities have the largest impact on air quality and on health.
Such specific provisions are considered appropriate given that there are
approx. 4000 scheduled activities in South Africa.
Such provisions should:
(a)
make provision for control and management of scheduled activity operations
by National government. This will rationalise procedures and regulations
which allow loopholes for industry to operate irresponsibly.
(b)
Oblige public officials to introduce mechanisms and planning frameworks
to facilitate transparency accredited independent validation of compliance
with permit conditions and compliance audits.
2. All legislation regarding pollution, should include
stringent controls appropriate penalties and provision for compensation
for medical expenses and general damages caused by pollution. This will
end current unjust practices such as sending home affected workers on
short pay and forcing communities to bear the costs of their pollution-induced
illnesses. Consideration should be given to the shifting the burden of
proof onto the alleged offender in the event of an injustice.
3. In addition we request intervention, linked to specific
time frames into the below listed hot spot areas.
Such interventions should include:
(a)
Promote a supportive relationship between government and hot spot communities
(b)
Make provision for resources to deepen the capacity of these communities
by providing user friendly information, promoting the right to information
and allowing meaningful participation in decision making processes.
(c)
Increase budget provision effectively to implement interventions
(d)
Establish the health impacts in these hot spot areas
(e)
Address the two main causes of domestic coal burning, viz, cost of electricity
and service delivery. Clean renewable sources of energy need to
be provided.
Finally honourable members we believe that you are
well placed to lead an international process towards a Global Convention
on Corporate Accountability. The Schedule activities that we encounter
are led by multi-national companies and the issues we deal with are, therefore
internationally relevant. This should utilise international benchmarks
based on the best of best practices.
From:
Sasolburg
Secunda
Vanderbijl Park
Richards Bay
Durban- South
Cape Town – North West areas
Supported by groundWork
3 April 2003
Cape Town
|
