SDCEA: Let’s work together, fight cancer causing companies
Desmond D'sa says the SDCEA encourages the building of active citizens, working with communities to solve the environmental issues and holding polluting companies and industries accountable.
RESIDENTS gathered at the Isipingo Beach Hall on Tuesday, 13 August to talk about the environmental issues they are facing. The meeting, commissioned by the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), was a platform for residents to voice their concerns and for the organisation to lend an ear to understand how it could work with the community and other stakeholders to address these issues.
“We’ll have continuous talks to highlight the high levels of cancer in the area and we invite more people because it is no longer a stigma, people are dying. We need to hold the people who are the causes of the cancer accountable. We have a strict mandate to fight environmental injustices and we’re not going to give up. We will not surrender or comprise anything on that issue,” said SDCEA office coordinator, Desmond D’sa.
Other issues raised by residents included poor meeting attendance, absence of the ward councillor, politicians who only show interest during election season, flooding, water and air pollution causing many deaths and health issues and poor waste management resulting in rubbish ending up at the mouth of the canal.
D’sa said the SDCEA encourages the building of active citizens, working with communities to solve the environmental issues and holding polluting companies and industries accountable.
He emphasised the importance of residents emailing complaints, taking pictures and videos of incidents and recording their grievances as evidence of the environmental issues they experience.
“The Durban city council doesn’t have a standby personnel on nightshift on weekends. So, we could hear a big explosion but there’d be no health officials on site. Our health has been affected but there are no health officials, the city is paralysed but also we are sitting back and allowing them to do what they want to do, how can we energise people to come together to stand up and fight?” probed D’sa who added that cancer rates were high in Wentworth, Merebank and on the Bluff.
The organisation will have more of these meetings and attendance is vital for residents as community support and commitment is key in fighting environmental issues more especially when companies and industries are the source of the problems. One such way is by lodging complaints to the various industries in writing or telephonically about the air and water pollution experienced and then providing SDCEA with the reference number of the complaints to follow up with.
For more information contact the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance on 031 461 1991 or e-mail the air quality and GIS officer, Bongani Mthembu, at bongani@sdceango.co.za or office coordinator, Desmond D’sa, at desmond@sdceango.co.za or visit www.sdcea.co.za.
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