Eddie Koch
WATER Affairs Minister Kader Asmal this week instructed his officials to investigate pollution charges against the controversial Thor Chemicals factory in the kwaZulu/Natal Midlands.
The minister’s move follows a personal inspection of the factory where at least two workers have died of mercury poisoning and scores of others have been exposed to dangerous levels of contamination.
The departmental probe follows an investigation conducted by Greenpeace International five years ago in which soil samples from a river near the British-owned plant in Cato Ridge indicated that sediment in the river had high levels of mercury contamination.
Paul Johnson, a scientist from Queens College at London University, wrote in his report for Greenpeace that samples taken from the river contained the highest levels of mercury that he had ever observed in the environment and that it posed a serious health hazard to people living downstream from the plant.
The company responded by saying the Greenpeace report was exaggerated and that the mercury in the river was in the form of a heavy metal that could not be ingested through domestic use of the water. Mercury poisoning causes serious malfunctions of the nervous system and sustained exposure can be fatal.
“Now the minister has instructed officials in the department to take samples from the area and to investigate whether the company is guilty of breaking water pollution controls. Once the departmental investigation is complete he will forward the findings to the attorney general for a decision about whether the company should be prosecuted,” said Asmal’s spokesman Themba Khumalo.
Meanwhile Thor says it has decided to sue green activist Chris Albertyn and Marc Colvin, a doctor who specialises in occupational health in Natal, for making allegedly libellous statements about Thor Chemicals’ health standards.
The company’s public relations officer John MacDonald said lawyers had been instructed to file for damages as the pair had made a “litany of unsubstantiated allegations” about the effects of mercury exposure on the health of workers at Thor. He said an amount had not yet been attached to the libel claim but the case would probably be filed in the Supreme Court.
Albertyn replied by saying he “welcomed the opportunity to deal with Thor in court”. He said a recent court case, in which Thor was fined R13 500 for negligence relating to the death of two workers from mercury poisoning, had failed to uncover the true extent of occupational hazards at the factory.
“We have a vast amount of information including work conducted by international experts and are looking forward to a legal forum in which this can be presented especially as the recent case did not get to the root of the matter.”
Environment Affairs Minister Dawie de Villiers has announced the creation of a commission of inquiry that will probe the existence of a stockpile of hazardous mercury waste on Thor’s premises and how to deal with the toxic material.
Earthlife Africa has slammed De Villiers for failing to make public the terms of reference of this commission. The organisation is also disgruntled because it has not been given the opportunity to participate in defining the scope of the government investigation into Thor’s