The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will — by the end of July — appoint a service provider to identify the top 50 air polluting industries or sectors in South Africa, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Monday.
Addressing the Western Cape sustainable development conference, Van Schalkwyk said: “Once identified we will, in partnership with provinces and local councils, target these industries to completely review their air pollution permit conditions.
“The review of permit conditions will be an interim measure to address existing air quality problems in the short-term, and under the older laws, whilst the capacity is being created in provincial and local authorities to implement and enforce the provisions and standards of the our Air Quality Act.”
He said the review process would be “a win-win initiative”.
He stated: “We will aim to train and make use of at least 30 air quality licensing officers in each province — which will build the skills needed to apply the Act. We will be helping industry to prepare for and phase in the much stricter standards of the new law, and perhaps most importantly we will be improving air quality sooner rather than later for our communities.”
“The one undeniable truth about the environment is that every living thing is connected. The web of life is more than just a poetic idea, it is a reality that defines our biggest social, economic and developmental challenges.
“As industry and communities pump greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the air, the planet is getting warmer, our rainfall patterns are changing and our plant and animal species are increasingly under threat.
“What this means is that nothing we do happens in isolation. The massive factory in Gauteng that pollutes the skies over Soweto is also partly responsible for the hunger in Mossel Bay when the fishermen find themselves catching less fish every season.”
“The poor family in Mitchell’s Plain that has no choice but to burn charcoal and wood for heat and to cook is also partly responsible for the climate change that has been predicted to wipe out more than a million species of plants and animals by 2050. Farms, industries, homes and lifestyles must become more sustainable in every community to protect the web of life,” he said.-I-Net Bridge