http://ips.link.no/IPS/art/eng/serv/AF/2001/04/03/05.22_004.html

Inter Press Service

April 2, 2001

Environmental Racism, a Lingering Legacy of Apartheid

By Danielle Knight <danielle@...>

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - The former government's practice of
locating polluting mines, industries and toxic waste dumps
near black and mixed race communities is one of apartheid's
lingering legacies that many communities say has proven to
be one of the hardest to remedy since the new government
took power.

Bobby Peek, one of South Africa's most prominent
environmentalists says the apartheid pattern of placing
potentially hazardous industries adjacent to or downwind of
black and immigrant communities is still enforced by
economics.

"Whether its South Durban or on the Cape, hazardous sites
are always near black and coloured communities," says Peek.
"It's South Africa's historical blue print."

This pattern hardly changed overnight once the African
National Congress took control of the government in 1994, he
says.

Here where Peek grew up, in the southern industrial basin of
this South African coastal city which is mostly made up of
poor black, Indian, and mixed-race communities, there has
been five major toxic gas leaks in the past year alone.
Workers and residents, including hundreds of school children
had to be hospitalised.

Not only does the area host several crude oil refineries,
including the largest one in southern Africa, it is also
home to the city's airport and 150 factories, including many
chemical plants and a pulp and paper mill.

While no formal studies have been done on the health impact
of pollution in South Durban, an investigative report last
year by a local journalist concluded that the rate of
leukaemia in the area may be up to 24 times higher than in
other parts of the country.

Two years ago, the city government released an environmental
assessment of South Durban which concluded that certain
residents living close to industrial operations should be
relocated.

But area residents like Desmond D'Sa, who were forced to
relocate under the former apartheid regime from certain
areas because they were not white, are adamantly against any
relocation.

"We don't want to move, we want to stand up and fight for a
cleaner environment," says D'Sa, who is an active member of
the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, a local
organisation.

Part of the problem says D'Sa, and other members of the
advocacy group, is that there are currently no legally
binding air pollution regulations in the country, only
non-binding "guidelines". South Africa also lacks any kind
of regulatory or enforcement body such as the US
Environmental Protection Agency and relies on
self-regulation of industry.

Stepping into the enforcement gap, local residents have
begun testing their own air using an inexpensive bucket air
sampling device that was developed by environmentalists in
the United States. The air samples are then sent by courier
to an air pollution laboratory in Los Angeles in the United
States, since there are no government approved air testing
facilities in South Africa.

Several of the samples taken near the oil refineries have
revealed elevated levels of benzene, a chemical classified
as a known cancer causing substance by the US Environmental
Protection Agency.

Levels of benzene near one of the refineries operated by
Engen, a subsidiary of Petronas, a Malaysian company, were
up to 15 times higher than World Health Organisation
guidelines and several times higher than recommended levels
in the United States.

D'Sa says that corporations operating in the area, such as
British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell, which are based in
industrialised nations that have legally binding air
pollution standards, should know better.

He points out that the US company, Mobil, which has now
merged with the oil giant Exxon, is currently being sued in
the United States by widows of employees who worked at the
company's refinery (now operated by Engen) here several
decades ago.

The lawsuit claims that the company did not take adequate
measures to protect the health of the workers, who have died
from diseases allegedly related to their jobs at the plant.

"I went to a Shell refinery in Denmark and there was no
smell at all," says D'Sa. "And when we looked at the data we
found that there was 85 percent less pollution from the
refineries in Denmark than here."

Richard Parkes, managing director of Sapref, the petroleum
refinery company that is jointly owned by Shell and BP, says
this is not the case. He says that compared with other Shell
refineries worldwide, the refinery in South Durban emits
about the same amount of pollution or less.

"While it is impossible to process 180,000 barrels of crude
oil a day without having an impact, we want to reduce that
impact, control it and remove it where possible to the point
where the good we do exceeds the disadvantages," he says.

But he acknowledged that the company emits very high amounts
of sulphur dioxide, a larger amount than the company
previously estimated.

To deal with this pollutant, Sapref launched a 40 million
dollar investment in a new sulphur recovery unit and gas
treating unit last month which the company says will
dramatically reduce refinery emissions of sulphur dioxide in
South Durban.

Narend Singh, provincial Minister of Agriculture and
Environmental Affairs, sees this recent step as a good
example for other industries in South Africa, but he says
further reductions in emissions are needed.

"The previous government was careless about the effects of
industrial development on the environment ... regulations
controlling pollution did not keep up with developments and
needs," he says. "We must not repeat that mistake."

The South Durban Community Environmental Alliance is
currently calling on the city government to conduct an
overall health study, but local health authorities have only
allocated funds for a risk assessment.

Michelle Simon, director of the advocacy group, says a risk
assessment is welcome but an epidemiological study of the
illnesses present in South Durban should also be pursued.

"The pollution is quite a drain on people's pockets," she
says. "People here do not have the money to buy medicine or
see the doctor again and again."

Peek blames the national policy makers for not allocating
enough funds for cleaning up the environment in poor black
neighbourhoods that have been historically marginalised. He
says each year the budget for environmental protection
decreases.

"We were so excited when the government included section 24
in our constitution, which ensures the right to live in a
clean and healthy environment," says Peek. "But our
government is not following through."

Copyright (c) 2001 Inter Press Service. All Rights Reserved.

For information about print or broadcast reproduction please
contact the IPS coordinator at <online@...>.



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