Government meets community on air quality

Following accusations that government is ignoring dangerously high air pollution, which is threatening the health of people in a number of communities.

National air quality officer, Dr Thulie Mdluli, will present a report on the current state of air in Durban South tomorrow.

The Department of Environmental Affairs said Mdluli would be present at a stakeholders meeting in the area to address complaints by environmental groups and residents on the air quality in the Durban South basin.

On Monday at the official release of a report titled “Slow Poison: Air pollution, public health and failing government”, Desmond D’sa, coordinator of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance and winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental prize, said the communities living near two oil refineries  and other plants were “burying at least two residents a month”.

“There have been an increase in children with leukaemia in the past couple months. We have also seen leukaemia amongst young people. We are shocked to note that some young married mothers have died in my community in the past few months. They have left young children behind."

“On the Bluff, in Wentworth, Merebank and Jacobs area cancer is more prevalent. We have found that cancer is more prevalent in south Durban than ever before,” he said.

The Alliance and the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine are embarking on a study to determine the prevalence rate of cancer in the area.

D’sa said a school near a chemical plant in the area was often forced to send children home early due to complaints of illness.

An independent health study in 2000 found that 52% of pupils at the Settlers Primary School in Merebank had asthma.

One of the alliance's volunteers, Romany Roberts said Wentworth residents battled to breathe.

“In some instances, we see one-year-old children using asthma pumps,” she said.

The report by environmental justice organisation groundWork, Centre for Environmental Rights and community partners, claimed that communities living near polluting companies were inhaling more airborne particles than recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO)  and the Department of Environmental Affairs.

The report said government and corporations  were complicit “in constructing a purposeful ignorance” by not collecting information and obstructing access to it under the pretence of state secrecy and corporate confidentiality.

“The fact that government has allowed the air quality management system to deteriorate to the point of collapse indicates a level of indifference to the people's health and well-being,” it said.

Government did not maintain monitoring stations, failed to collect relevant health statistics, abandoned its  “half-hearted” attempt to develop a functioning air quality information system as required by law and is legalising non-compliance.