THE South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) has raised the alarm bells over an “environmental catastrophe waiting to happen” after a second chemical factory emitted toxic fumes into the air yesterday, after a fire broke out.
A fire ripped through the KZN Resins factory on Balfour Road, Jacobs that prompted the eThekwini Municipality to advise residents living in Durban’s southern areas to keep their windows and doors closed and avoid doing any outside activity.
Desmond D’Sa, the spokesperson for the SDCEA said the fire was is a sign of a government that was failing to do its job as there was little to no safety and environmental oversight at factories due to a lack of qualified people.
“Because they don’t have the required people to ensure compliance, it could become an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen,” he said.
The eThekwini Municipality denies this says that it has a scheduled activity by-law which was reviewed and updated last year.
“This permit is one of a kind in the country and requires many activities which have potential for human and environmental impacts to have this permit. This permit is issued for every five years but reports are submitted annually, and compliance inspections are also done annually on all facilities,” eThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela said.
D’Sa was however doubtful that was the case and pointed to the recent fire at the United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) Warehouse in Cornubia which resulted in mass fish and crustacean deaths along the Umhlanga and Umdloti Lagoons, north of Durban as proof that little to inspections are done at chemical factories.
He said that many chemical companies were storing dangerous toxic chemicals which if something went wrong could be catastrophic.
“What is the government waiting for? For thousands of people to die before they do anything? Unless something is done, this is a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.
D’Sa alleged that the city had run out of air monitoring equipment and could not send someone out yesterday, to assess the air quality impact of the fire.
He also claimed that “sophisticated in quality control stations” that were installed in the late 1990s has not operated since 2009.
Mayisela said that was not true and there were four stations in the South Durban basin, one of which he admitted was down and conceded that there were “challenges” in data transmission.
“There are about four stations in the South Durban basin located in Ganges school, Settlers school, Wentworth hospital and Jacobs Balfour. Ganges station is currently down due vandalism and theft and Jacobs station is currently running but there are challenges in data transmission or network issues but the data will be collected manually on the instrument that is there. All other data is available on Saaqis app and website and this data can be readily seen and accessed by anyone,” he said.
Yesterday, a team of specialists from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs was going to the resins factory which was gutted by a fire.
The team from EDTEA, comprising of District management and specialists in Air Quality Management, Pollution and Waste Management and Compliance and Enforcement, has started coordinating the Nema (National Environmental Management Act) Section 30 process.
The process focuses on the containment and remedial action that has to be taken as per the provisions of Section 30 of the Nema.
Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC, Ravi Pillay, said he was worried about any short-term and long-term effect this incident might have on the environment and on human health.
“Through the Nema Section 30 process we will seek to establish all the facts around this incident like what hazardous substances were released to the environment and what was the cause of the fire.
“This will allow us to give direction on the required remedial action and will also inform what enforcement action we institute. Working with eThekwini Municipality and other stakeholders we will be closely monitoring developments around this incident,” Pillay said.
IOL