Case study 5: Air pollution in South Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

There are vulnerable communities that are adversely affected by the low-level, long-term risks of living in close contact with the environment.  South Durban provides an important example of human vulnerability to air pollution.   

Durban is the largest industrial centre of the eThekwini Metropolitan Area, where working class communities live in close proximity to chemical and other ‘dirty’ industries.  These communities are exposed to the health risks of living near this type of industry, including the nation’s largest petroleum refinery, the second largest petrochemical factory, and a total of 180 smokestack operations in this industrial region.  

The complex land-use mix is compounded by the geography of the area, the topography being a basin, with frequent inversion layers and poor air circulation that cause aggravating air pollution problems.   

The scale and scope of the air pollution problem in South Durban has been fiercely contested over the years abetted by a shortage of reliable information on the true extent of the problem. The area has seen intensifying environmental activism since the early 1990s, particularly from organizations such as the South Durban Environmental Alliance, an umbrella organization.   

Until recently, little incentive or coercion exists for companies in South Durban to adhere to environmental emission standards.  Despite a comprehensive framework of environmental legislation, enforcement in the area has been weak due to a lack of external monitoring and enforcement capacity.  

Government initiated a Multi Point Plan (MPP) in an effort to find a sustainable solution to the poor air quality problem in the South Durban Basin.  The South Durban Basin Multi Point Plan received multi-stakeholder endorsement in May 2000 and Cabinet Approval in October 2000.  Key project areas of the MPP include establishing a modern air quality management system comprising eleven air quality monitoring stations, undertaking a health study to measure exposure levels, setting air pollution standards, and phasing out polluting fuels, in an effort to reduce sulphur dioxide and fugitive gas emissions.     

The MPP has contributed to a 45% reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions and attributed to the phasing out of fuels of excessive sulphur content.  The MPP has also initiated an investment of over a billion rand from the industries that contributed to the sulphur dioxide reduction plan.  It is anticipated that there will be further reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions over the next few years through continuing regulatory intervention.   

The Durban South case study is a good example of the way in which participatory processes, involving stakeholders, the local community, government and industry, formed the pivotal component in making MPP a reality and, most important, in delivering quantifiable results.   

One of the outcomes of the MPP is that government is considering other potential pollution ‘hot spots’ in the country, such as the Vaal Triangle.  These could be declared Priority Areas under the new Air Quality Act, and therefore deemed suitable for the MPP approach in dealing with air pollution, which in turn could help to address human vulnerability.