We demand that Department of Environmental Affairs puts a stop to the environmental injustices and health issues created by in Enviroserv’s toxic stench, the role of protecting affected communities should not lie with the courts alone. Government must demand that Enviroserve rehabilitate the landfill site and hold them financially accountable for any health, social and environmental threats they have posed in Ntshongweni, Dassenhoek, KwaNdengezi, Buxfarm and Cliffdale, and Shongweni.
We demand Department of Environmental Affairs and Department of Health come together to create a social, health and environmental audit on the destruction caused by improper waste management.
DEA and DoH must immediately come up with a national strategy that deals with toxic waste without causing harm to health or the environment. We demand this strategy to have maximum public participation involvement and not isolate black communities living with the impacts of improper hazardous waste disposal.
Why is this important?
Enviroserv has been in the news a lot lately for their toxic waste landfill site, which has angered the residents of Shongweni. But Enviroserv’s crimes are not only limited to those in the current new cycle. They have been polluting in black communities, such as Ntshongweni, Dassenhoek, KwaNdengezi, Buxfarm and Cliffdale, for over 15 years and have left struggling communities with a mountain of health issues including; headaches, fatigue and nose bleeds.
There is has been no science-specific research that measures the long term impacts of Enviroserv’s pollution and the health issues experienced by communities. A targeted surveillance system that maps out the social, health and environmental impacts created by hazardous waste needs to be developed to avoid far more serious health issues like cancer in the future.
Enviroserv’s legal appeal process that is challenging DEA’s decision to suspend their operations license, sends a clear message that Enviroserv thinks our lives are cheap and that profit matters more to them then our health, environment and quality of life.
EnviroServ is ignoring our constitutional rights and the increased incidence of illnesses apparently related to the foul odour, not to mention the psychological effects living in the stench of a toxic landfill is having on us. By refusing to tell us what is going into the landfill and what its possible toxic effects on humans are, you are only serving to increase our fear that the health effects are being caused by the hazardous, ineffectively or untreated waste being accepted at the landfill.
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