Cape Town, 6 JUNE 2000
Madame Chairperson,
Honourable Members and Delegates.
The Department of Environmental Affairs marks this year's World Environment Week with a clear message: It is time to act and clean up our country for a better life. Our country is getting dirtier everyday and our people's lives endangered. From ill managed and hazardous waste our environment is degraded and our children in constant danger of diseases. From air pollution we are faced as the world, with a real possibility of global warming and similar dangers emanating from atmospheric change and our enormous coast line is threatened by irresponsible human behaviour. We are resolved to get a foot hold on all these issues through clear policies and firm action in order to entrench the principles of sustainable development geared at the improvement of our people's quality of life.
To do this an integrated strategy is indispensable. A forum such as the NCOP, that bring all the spheres of government together, is tasked with a role that can make or break our endeavours to carry this vision forward. If provinces and local government do not localise and implement the policies we set here, those policies remain meaningless to the poor majority we purport to serve.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Pollution and waste management issues are foremost on government's agenda. Just two weeks ago we unveiled the White Paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management. We are determined to turn this policy into reality - to this end we have published for public comment, regulations that spell out our intention to ban the use of plastic carry bags. Let me hasten to add that this is not a ban on all plastic but the thin carry bags 79 microns and below that get given away free of charge and are visible in our country's landscape. Every one uses plastic, therefore we strongly believe that this issue will help us to reach every South African and encourage a culture of cleanliness.
Visible action is being taken to establish waste management infrastructure in townships, dealing with medical and other hazardous waste that continue to threaten communities and contribute to increased poverty and degradation of the environment. To this end in August this year, we will be publishing Integrated Waste Management Planning Guidelines for local government. Local government has a key role to play in community awareness campaigns; the designing of alternative collection systems and the creation of community based waste collection systems.
It is the role of local government to put in place local by laws, ordinances and regulations that are effective. It is appropriate to acknowledge the steps taken by the Northern Cape town of Douglas for banning the use of plastic carry bags well ahead of this becoming law. The City of Cape Town will also soon be launching a huge campaign against litter in the Mother city. This is the type of initiative we expect from local government if we are to succeed in defeating the scourge of waste that threatens to drown us all.
Chairperson, the state of health care waste management in South Africa is very poor. Contributing to this state of affairs is a lack of training and awareness, limited financial resources, particularly at the Provincial health care level. Add this to the lack of capacity at the authority level you have a situation where disposal of health care waste to inappropriate landfills and informal dumps becomes commonplace in our country. While some institutions are managing infectious waste in an acceptable manner, almost none have acceptable procedures and management systems in place for chemical, including pharmaceutical waste, and low level radioactive waste.
A brief study into the current status of health care waste management, the approach used internationally and the needs in South Africa has been conducted by our Department. We will shortly be publishing regulations that will serve as guidelines for health care waste management to correct this scary situation.
WAR ON POLLUTION
In the last few months there has been a lot of concern expressed about air pollution. There have been corporate citizens who have been less than responsible in their commitments to limit emission levels to acceptable and hazard free levels. Government on its side has been consistent over the last six years in enforcing sustained emission reduction programmes at each of the four refineries in our country. We are confident that this has resulted in significant improvement in ambient air pollution levels in the vicinity of these plants. In fact, the results of our independently audited monitoring, reveals that the emission levels to which residents are exposed to, are well below World Health Organization standards. Concerned stakeholders are sent these results on a regular basis.
Despite these improvements Government is committed to heed the calls by our people who have over the years moved closer and closer to reside next to refineries.
We have stated on a number of occasions that we have no tolerance for companies that damage the health of residents and workers through their activities. We will not hesitate to prosecute and recover damages from companies that disregard environmental norms and standards. We have agreed to start negotiations with the refineries on putting in place co-operative agreements in terms of the National Environment Management Act which will entail the operation of ambient and emission monitoring, independent auditing of monitoring results and agreeing on emission reduction programmes. These negotiations do not preclude more drastic action against the major polluters in this country. Polluters will be made to pay up to clean up the mess.
Internationally we are already playing our parts in this area- South Africa has been mandated by to host the Basel Regional Training Centre on behalf of English speaking countries which is intended to build capacity in hazardous waste management and transboundary movement of waste in the Southern Africa and the entire continent. This will further assist South Africa's programme to implement the Basel Convention.
ASBESTOS
Our department is built on the foundation that we will promote environmental justice in South Africa. The conspicuous asbestos problem and the suffering of countless communities remain an impediment to fulfilling this mandate. A process led by DEAT with the involvement of relevant departments and stakeholders, is intended to co-ordinate government efforts to ensure more effective resolution of issues which relate to rehabilitation of mine dumps, secondary asbestos pollution and compensation. To this end the DEAT have finalised a programme of action, which requires the collective action of government to implement.
We intend to work with all provinces towards intensifying awareness around the hazards of asbestos and the plight of the victims of asbestos who are having their case heard in the London court. The next hearing is scheduled for 17 July in London and it is the intention of our department to offer moral support in this instance.
CLIMATE CHANGE
South Africa's ratification of the UNFCC Convention signifies government's commitment to join the global community in finding solutions to the escalating greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. South Africa's economy is coal based coupled with emissions from domestic coal burning as a result of a still underdeveloped electricity infrastructure despite the fact that South Africa is not obliged to a reduction target on greenhouse gas emissions, we have committed ourselves to a sustainable development growth path underpinned by the following aspects which form the basis of the programme of action that will be implemented by the Department on climate change:
Whilst the South African government to date has done considerable amount of work in mitigating the effects of climate change our intervention in response to these effects must happen as a collective. It is for this reason that the Cabinet has approved the collective involvement of the departments of minerals and energy, trade and industry, water affairs and forestry, transport, agriculture in working towards this objective. This collective action will culminate in a Response Strategy which outline has been approved by Cabinet and is due for finalisation in December 2000.
The implementation of the US/SA Bilateral grant Agreement will see the commencement of several projects in August 2000 including Metro City Climate Change Initiatives.
COASTAL MANAGEMENT
What better celebration of this year's World Environment Week than the launch only this morning of the White Paper for Sustainable Coastal Development in South Africa!
It is estimated that coastal resources contribute R168 billion annually to the national economy, approximately 35% of the Gross Domestic Product. The coastal population of approximately 13.7 million people hosts some of South Africa's poorest and overcrowded communities. Consequently, maximising the benefits derived from coastal resources in a sustainable and equitable manner, is vital for South Africa's long term prosperity and fight against poverty. This policy is aimed at maximizing and sustaining the social, economic and environmental benefits provided by coastal resources. In a partnership between government and civil society, my Department will initiate a course of action that will unlock the full potential of our coast, whilst maintaining the wealth, diversity and productivity of coastal ecosystems. Central to this strategy is support for local demonstration projects aimed at fostering shared responsibility for coastal resources between government and coastal communities. Other aims will be to create jobs through economic development, test alternative solutions to problems and build institutional capacity to implement the policy at local level. National and provincial coastal priority issues will be addressed. Some examples identified by coastal stakeholders who were widely consulted during the development of the White Paper include the promotion of coastal tourism, leisure and recreational development, mariculture and 'one-stop-shops' for obtaining planning, environmental and other approvals for coastal development applications. Already our Department has started work on these very important issues. For example, a pilot phase of a national Blue Flag Programme is nearing completion. This scheme awards beaches that meet amenity and environmental criteria with Blue Flags, ensuring those familiar with the scheme, which is highly successful in Europe, of clean and safe beaches. Furthermore, work on a mariculture sector development plan that will seek new opportunities in the sector and simplify the bureaucratic approval process is well advanced.
Supporting these initiatives will be a national awareness, education and training programme. Awareness of the value of the coast will be raised to actively encourage all South African's to become responsible users of the coast.
CONCLUSION
All these initiatives will enable South Africa to take its rightful place in the world stage in the implementation of resolutions of the United Nation Commission on sustainable development. For this reason South Africa is bidding to host the Earth summit ( RIO plus 10) to be held in 2002. This initiative alone will bring untold investment in South Africa and the entire continent in terms of amongst others tourism growth.
Given a number of International environmental conventions happening in that year I will be making a call soon that South Africa should take a lead in declaring 2002 The Year of the Environment. We need to mobilise all of government to focus on how all our resources and capacity can make for a better environment to secure the resources we have been endowed with for generations to come.
The successful implementation of programmes such as local Agenda 21 requires a global partnership for sustainable development within which all nations make environmental political and social commitments. SA's recent hosting of a regional conference to deal with African Solutions fits in neatly with our vision for Africa's rebirth.