At the recent Waste Khoro which took place in KwaZulu-Natal, Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, hit out against harmful and hazardous waste poisoning communities by calling for “toxic justice”.

“We continue to engage and empower communities affected by the negative impacts of illegal dumping and poorly managed landfill sites as well as bolstering compliance monitoring and enforcement capacity and the implementation of authorised waste management best practice,” she said. The Minister added that it is important, “to ensure that the most vulnerable citizens of our society are protected and that polluters are held responsible and prosecuted.”

Hazardous Roadmap

Minister’s Molewa’s address also hailed the finalisation of her Department’s Hazardous Waste Roadmap, aimed at addressing the impacts of hazardous waste streams as well as outlining a strategy of waste diversions, minimisation and recycling.

She noted that the Department had been forced to close several large hazardous waste landfill sites in the KwaZulu-Natal province alone due to, “close proximity to vulnerable communities which was inherited as part of the apartheid spatial planning legacy.”

Chemical pollution

Molewa assured assembled members of government and the waste management community that her Department had begun work in assessing the possible impact the Minamata Convention on Mercury might have on South Africa.

Since signing the Convention in October 2013, South Africa has been obliged to phase out the use of mercury and address the harmful legacy impacts of mercury on the environment.

“We will complete this study by the end of the financial year and then take recommendations to Cabinet for approval,” said the Minister.

One of the most mercury-contaminated sites in the country is in in Catoridge. After conducting a Commission of Enquiry into Thor Chemicals in the late 1990s, the site’s contamination was addressed with possible solutions to decontaminate and remediate the site being explored.

“We have also begun work on Asbestos remediation after concluding a detailed study on the South African Secondary Asbestos Remediation Plan,” the Minister announced.