Since 2015, a growing movement across the Upper Highway has fought for our community’s right to breathe clean air. We meet the people driving that challenge
story andrea abbott
That stench! Yes – that one; the smell that started causing a stir towards the end of 2015 and that’s now the talk of the town; the one that’s typically described as a refinery/petrochemical odour, that invades homes, is said to cause an array of illnesses, and hijacks the clean air that was once the pride of our region. The pollution has impacted on thousands of people, most notable among them a group of hard-working volunteers who are fighting on behalf of us all to get back our clean air.
“The matter consumes our lives,” says Lauren Johnson, a director of Upper Highway Air (UHA), the non-profit company (NPC) formed to tackle the problem. Lauren first noticed the smell in November 2015. “Others began detecting it too, people said it was making them sick and complaints were sent to the Municipality’s Health and Air Pollution control departments.” According to UHA, municipal investigations cleared a number of potential sources, but identified the EnviroServ landfill site at Shongweni as a major cause of the stench.
Solving the problem was thus, surely, a step away. “We thought it would be easy because of the regulations governing landfill sites,” says another of UHA’s directors, Karla Minnitt. It turned out to be anything but easy.
EnviroServ’s management denied they were at fault and the UHA team soon found themselves in a battle they couldn’t have predicted. “We all now know more about landfills than we ever thought we needed to know,” says co-director, Neville Kaiser. In their quest, the group has hired experts to gather evidence, and they’ve also engaged repeatedly with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the Municipality and EnviroServ, and represented the Upper Highway community at working group and monitoring committee meetings.
Raising public awareness has been an important goal. An initial Whatsapp group that Lauren set up in her neighbourhood has since morphed into a Facebook group which, at the time of writing, had more than 9 000 members and which ex-Hillcrest resident and social media guru, Amy Fisher, manages from the far off Isle of Man.
Closer to home, the team was concerned about people living closest to the dump, in places like KwaNdengezi and Dassenhoek, and wondered how to get them involved. “One day, we noticed a comment on Facebook by Sandile KingsfordBele from KwaNdengezi,” recalls Neville. “We met with Sandile and also made contact with Siyanda Chonco, who works for the World Changers Academy in Shongweni.” The pair have since become staunch allies in the battle, reaching into less privileged communities that, until recently, were practically without a voice.
The extent to which the wider region is affected was perhaps best illustrated by the now-famous Toxic Trek through central Hillcrest in February. At least 1 500 people participated in the march, while hundreds more lined the route. The trek took a massive amount of planning, which included getting a permit from the police, which, Lauren » says, EnviroServ tried to get withdrawn. “The event brought Hillcrest to a standstill,” she adds. “It proved too that things can be done in a peaceful, law-abiding way.”
Doing things the legal way is the hallmark of the NPC and the reason, the group believe, they’ve made more progress and in a much shorter time, than many other communities fighting similar battles.
An encouraging breakthrough came at the time of the trek, when the DEA issued a notice of intention to suspend and/or revoke EnviroServ’s Waste Management License for the Shongweni Landfill. EnviroServ was given an opportunity to argue why this shouldn’t happen and UHA – represented by Lauren, the NPC’s attorney Charmane Nel, and Sandile – put their case for the suspension at a meeting in Pretoria. At the time of writing, the official outcome was still being awaited. However, UHA is hopeful, while remaining as determined as ever. “We’re not going to stop until we achieve our goal,” says Lauren.
UPDATE: Late in February, the National Prosecuting Authority announced its intention to prosecute EnviroServ. At the time of writing, details of the charges and court date had not yet been made public.
GET INVOLVED
The UHA team members all have “day jobs” and families, and yet somehow find the time to act on behalf of all of us in the Upper Highway. None draws a salary. They dig deep into their own pockets and are the ones drawing fire from all sides.
Funding is vital. “We want to hire the best experts that money can buy,” Lauren says. Join the UHA Facebook community and participate in the raffles and auctions that fundraiser supremo Margaret Stoop organises.
As the stench spreads, public awareness is growing and people are urged to continue to report when the stench affects them. In January alone, complaints totalled 11 748.
Visit www.upperhighwayair.co.za to find out how to lodge complaints and also to learn more about what has been achieved and how to play your part.
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