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Date : 07/09/2004
Source: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Title: M van Schalkwyk: Debate on National Environmental Management Air Quality Bill


SPEECH BY MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS & TOURISM, OPENING THE DEBATE ON THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AIR QUALITY BILL, National Assembly, 7 September 2004

NEW AIR QUALITY LAW: CLEANING THE AIR, PUNISHING THE POLLUTERS

Madame Speaker,

I would like to take this opportunity to add my own voice to those today who have paid tribute to the late Dr. Beyers Naude, a visionary Afrikaner clergyman and political activist. Dr Naude's contribution to South Africa and non-racialism will stand as the beacon of his legacy to our new democracy.

Introduction

Imagine waking up on a Monday morning with a sense of real discomfort. Imagine climbing out of bed, wondering why your chest is tight, your eyes burning, and your lungs struggling for air. Imagine opening your curtains and looking up into a morning sky filled, not with sunshine, but blanketed by a huge cloud of smoke. This was the reality that greeted families in Durban South on the morning of 12 April this year.

Imagine walking or driving down your street on a Sunday afternoon and feeling a fine mist falling from the sky. Imagine your concern and frustration when you realise that the mist is not a light drizzle but is instead a shower of oil rain, settling on your home, your car, and your family. This was the reality on 4 July this year when residents of Tableview in Cape Town were sprayed with crude oil as it fell to earth after an accident at a near-by refinery.

Speakers, unacceptable concentrations of cancer-causing pollutants are being measured in and around South Africa's industrial centres. Every winter our people cough and choke from breathing a vile cocktail of airborne pollution that remains trapped under the annual inversion layer in the sky. Every year our country spends more than R4 billion on health problems related to air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels. This list of shame goes on and on. We have a duty to end this intolerable situation. We have a responsibility to act.

Our Constitution guarantees to every South African the right to air that is not harmful to our health and well-being. We, as Government, must protect and defend this right, taking the necessary legislative and enforcement steps to ensure that the air we breathe is fit to breathe. The National Environmental Management Air Quality Bill is one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation yet to serve before this House. It links directly to our Government's efforts to build a caring society, and to improve the lives of especially our poorest communities.

From the outset though I must stress that new laws do not make blue skies. No matter how well a law is constructed, no matter how detailed, no matter how cutting-edge, the passing of a law will not miraculously scrub our skies of the pollution that threatens our health and even the global climate itself.

Our skies will turn blue only through the hard work and dedication of committed South Africans effectively and efficiently making use of the tools provided by this new legislation. As a number of communities have shown us over the past few months, every South African in every community can be an air quality manager we all have a critical role to play.

Context of the AQB

Speaker, before we turn to the specifics of the Air Quality Bill we should perhaps reflect on the gaps and failures of our existing legislation. Although these failures seem obvious when breathing the foul air in some parts of South Africa, we should recall that the current Atmospheric Pollution Prevention Act (APPA) was passed in 1965 decades before we knew anything about global climate change, ozone depletion, or poisonous persistent pollutants. Although APPA may have been adequate to manage air quality in "one-industry towns" it has not kept pace with industrial development and is now hopelessly outdated.

When Government's Integrated Pollution and Waste Management Policy was published in 2000 our air quality management legislation fell sharply under the spotlight. After exploring whether it might be possible to 'tweak' APPA, it soon became clear that entirely new legislation was required. Together with our provincial partners, our department began drafting this new legislation * first published for public comment in 2003. Following workshops in all nine provinces, the Bill was revised and submitted to the NCOP where it was passed in late 2003.

In February this year, the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs & Tourism held public hearings on the Bill. During these hearings it became apparent that the Bill is long overdue. The excellent comments made during the hearings by industry, communities, and public interest groups alike, convinced the committee that some revisions were necessary. Given the imminent elections however, they were faced with a dilemma either to pass the Bill un-amended, or to let the process begin afresh after the elections. Fortunately a middle-path was found, the Bill has been reactivated, and is now before you today.

In the months following the public hearings, our department conducted meetings with all those parties who made presentations to the committee and has crafted a comprehensive set of amendments to the Bill. Although it is not possible to meet the concerns of every individual or group, there appears to be broad consensus among stakeholders that the amendments have greatly improved the Bill. The Deputy Minister will touch on these amendments in more detail later in this debate.

AQB Improvements on APPA

Speaker, the Air Quality Bill represents a quantum leap in air quality management legislation especially when compared to APPA. APPA provides no standards nor does it give real guidance about what we regard as air that is fit to breathe. The result is that there is no level playing field for industry, and no targets for improvement. In contrast, the Air Quality Bill provides for the setting of standards both for the quality of air that we breathe, and for what may be released into that air. These standards will provide the benchmark for air quality management in all South African communities, and will now be used to measure how effectively we are managing our air.

Another major improvement is the fact that the Bill uses ambient air quality the air that we breathe as its point of departure. As such, Government will now be able to set tighter emission standards in areas where multiple emission sources are present. In contrast APPA looked only at each individual smoke stacks without ever taking into account the combined impact of multiple emissions. This gap was one of the factors that allowed the development of air pollution 'hot-spots' around South Africa.

The National Environmental Management Act introduced the 'polluter pays' principle in 1998, and the Air Quality Bill not only turns this into a reality with regard to air pollution, it takes the principle to a new level. Not only does the Bill provide for cost-recovery, it also provides for both ambient and emission monitoring by industry itself.

Furthermore, this Bill has teeth. Gone will be the days of APPA when the only offence was to operate a listed activity without a license. Under APPA the most severe penalty that could be imposed for conviction on a first offence was a mere R500 fine or up to six months imprisonment. For a second offence the fine limit was raised to the still-paltry level of R2000 or one year in prison. The Air Quality Bill provides stiff penalties for non-compliance with fines up to the maximum allowed by the Criminal Procedures Act and jail sentences of up to ten years. The new Bill ensures that the punishment fits the crime - looking at the seriousness of the offence, the financial gain from the commission of the offence, and the offender's contribution to overall air quality problems in the area. The message is clear - polluters will no longer be able to get away with the equivalent of a 'slap on the wrist' they will be punished.

Making it Real

So what does this mean in practice? Simply put Speaker, polluters will no longer be able to hide among other polluters and point fingers at each other when ambient air is no longer fit to breathe. Ambient air quality monitoring and air quality modelling, coupled with stack emission monitoring, will quickly identify the culprits. Once identified, the Bill provides various tools to reduce emissions. Furthermore, minimum emission standards will provide a far better baseline.

Just over a month ago I was joined by the full Portfolio Committee on a site visit to the South Durban Industrial Basin. It was a valuable experience because it brought us face to face with people like the parents of Junaid Ally, Maria Sundram, and Ivan Moses children cursed with chronic asthma whose only 'offence' was being born into families living side-by-side with heavy industry.

I wish today to repeat the warning to some industries in South Africa especially to some of our refineries - that I issued at the JHB+2 Sustainable Development Conference last week: it is past time to clean up your act. If your equipment and plants are outdated, if your technology is unsafe, recapitalise and replace now before it is too late. Don't wait for accidents or incidents because with our new Air Quality legislation you will be held accountable.

Blue Sky Partnerships

This Bill is a product of partnership. In its initial development, in the provincial workshops, in the public hearings, and now right here in the National Assembly, we are forging blue-sky partnerships to clean up our air.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the NGOs and communities involved for their dedication and commitment to the development of the Bill and finalisation of the process. The passion demonstrated by the people of South Durban, Boipatong, Sasolburg, Secunda, Richards Bay, and Table View will remain a driving force behind the effective implementation of this Bill. The blue skies of our future, across South Africa, will bear testimony to their determination.

We would also not have reached this point without the hard work and foresight of the past and present Portfolio Committees who enthusiastically involved themselves in lengthy presentations, technical debates, and heated discussions. The new committee has even visited pollution hotspots, en masse, seeing first-hand why this Bill is both urgent and important. Speaker I would like to pay tribute to both the former Chairperson, Hon. Gwen Mahlangu, the new Chairperson Hon. Elizabeth Thabete, as well as every member of their committees.

As we cross the last remaining hurdles in the finalisation of this legislation, we must ensure that the partnerships forged in its development must continue. As we said during the Budget Vote process earlier this year, our sons and daughters must no longer grow up under the impression that brown and grey is the natural colour of our South African skyline.

Implementing the Bill

Speaker, ek wil graag 'n paar woorde s

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