Govt sued over rising air pollution
Updated | By Nokukhanya Mntambo
Non-profit environmental ground, groundWork, has taken legal action against the Department of Environmental Affairs for its failure to crack down on the rising air pollution in parts of Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
The group filed papers at the high court in Pretoria on Friday calling on government to compel major contributors to pollution in the area to take meaningful action.
"We are asking the court to declare that that area does not meet section 24(a) of our constitution. That means that area is polluted and it impacts upon people's health and well-being.
"Subsequent to that we are asking the court then to compel the Department of of Environmental Affairs and government to pass the necessary regulation as required in the air quality management plan or as asked for in the air quality management in order that those regulations can force industry like Eskom and Sasol to reduce their air pollution," says groundWork director Bobby Peek.
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According to Peek, a study found that the air pollution emitted in the area was responsible for the deaths of more than 300 people in 2016.
"We use Eskom's studies that indicated that there were deaths from their plants, so that is really important to recognize. And critically, we also did further studies with Dr Mike Holland in 2017 and even recently, in the court papers, Dr Andy Gray, an expert in air and health risk modelling also found that the 14 facilities were responsible for the lion share of air pollution in 2016 and obviously that results in people's death."
"Out of those emissions he [Dr Gray] calculated that they caused between 305 and 650 early deaths in around that area in 2016. However we know that the pollution in that area in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and we have evidence of that from the monitoring station, have stayed the same or at times have increased."
Peek believes there is a need for government to deliver on its promise to reduce air pollution in the area.
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