On the eve of the biggest conference to be held in Durban, ironically the UN climate change negotiations, the eThekwini municipality has come under fire for failing to monitor air pollution levels within the controversial South Durban Basin Industrial area.
South Durban residents and environmentalists have campaigned for decades about the refineries and other big industries that they maintain are guilty of emitting dangerous pollutants into the air, causing respiratory and other ailments, especially among children.
It has now been confirmed that key senior staff have resigned from the department, leaving pollution levels unchecked for at least a year.
It was revealed at the provincial legislature yesterday that the stations used for monitoring air pollution were no longer functional since the resignation of senior staff.
The stations had provided critical data on chemicals released into the air to ensure they were within international, South African and World Health Organisation air-quality guidelines.
Ncumisa Mafunda, a media liaison officer at the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, said: “Early this year the head of that unit resigned. His two assistants followed suit about two months later.
“Consequently the stations are no longer functional since the resignation of these men,” she said.
The municipality’s pollution control unit acquired several air-quality monitoring stations through the Norwegian government as part of a multi-point programme for the area, said Mafunda.
The stations were operated by the unit which also processes and publishes the data.
“The presence of the monitoring network had served as deterrent in reduction of air pollution in that region,” she said.
Stations
With the resignation of the staff, the stations have been left unattended.
“Our department plans to have a meeting soon with the structure of the eThekwini municipality to address this issue,” said Mafunda.
The statements at the legislature came as no surprise to the south Durban community.
Desmond D’Sa, a spokesman for the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), said millions of rand had been spent on training senior staff and about a dozen staff had left the department in the past few years.
“The city does not want to retain the staff and pay them; the staff has been lost to industry and the city hasn’t done anything to keep them,” said D’Sa.
The city will host the climate change talks between November 28 and December 9.
He said the equipment at the 14 stations had not been calibrated and was “basically dysfunctional”.
D’Sa said the provincial department should have known this was happening, as they had an oversight role.
“The city is going all out to host the climate change talks next month, but yet the air-pollution stations remain unstaffed and what else but carbon dioxide is being let into the air with no one from the city watching how much,” said D’Sa.
He adding that there was no recent accurate data.
DA spokesman on conservation, Tom Stokes, said that the history of tension between oil refineries and residents in the southern industrial basin was well documented, and that while it was unlikely that industries would suddenly increase their emissions, the loss of a policing system would inevitably result in greater carelessness with possible serious health risks.
SDCEA is planning a march to the Engen refinery today after a fire that broke out there last week during which children and teachers from the nearby Settlers Primary School were left needing medical attention.
The municipality had not responded to queries about the staffing problem at the time of going to press. - The Independent on Saturday