Mrs Y.E. Bacus, the Acting Head of Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal officially opened the International Committee on Contaminated Land (ICCL) Conference in Durban today. The conference takes place until 11 October and will see over 200 participants from South Africa and abroad convene at the Southern Sun Hotel, Elangeni.
The ICCL is a forum for international exchange and cooperation with regard to the management and treatment of contaminated land. The forum holds its meetings biennially. The meeting is targeted at experts in the remediation of contaminated land, government Departments and non-governmental organisations that deal with the remediation of contaminated land. The previous meeting was held in Washington DC in 2011. South Africa began participating in this meeting in 2009.
During her keynote address, Acting HOD Bacus emphasised that, “South African legislation is very clear on our commitment to a clean and healthy environment. This aspect is particularly enshrined in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, section 24 which states that everyone has a right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing. This notion flows throughout our domestic legislation such as the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) of 1998 and the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008.”
Acting HOD Bacus went on to explain that the remediation of contaminated land forms part of a comprehensive environmental strategy for the sustainable management of environmental resources. “Our approach is based on the polluter pays principle meaning that any person who is responsible for contamination of any land, must be held liable for the remediation of such land.
The National Environmental Management: Waste Act of 2008 which came into effect on 1 July 2009, clearly identifies the status and risk of contaminated sites and provides a legal mechanism for remediation activities to be instigated and controlled. Of particular importance is that the Waste Act applies to contaminated land even if contamination occurred before the coming into effect of the Act. It seeks to establish a register of investigation areas and contaminated land and ensure that such land is remediated to agreed standards.”
Contamination in South Africa, like many parts of the world; is mainly as a result of anthropogenic sources and also from natural sources to a limited extent. South Africa as a developing country has various industries which account for most of contamination and include the mining sector, agriculture, petroleum industries, steel industries and historical unauthorised waste disposal sites.
Remediation technologies and methods have been to a large extent excavation and disposal although to some degree, new technologies including phyto-remediation, biological and other methods are slowly being introduced. Remediation activities have previously been voluntary from by industries with no or limited monitoring and authorisation from the regulator. The new legislative regime will ensure that government partners with industry in a form of co-regulation whereby the Minister will issue orders and remediation orders for areas which have been declared as contaminated, the aim of which will be to remediate or manage the sites to contain contaminants from spreading.
In South Africa preparations are in place to bring Part 8 of our Waste Act into effect before the end of this year and these provisions will replace all the other old and obsolete legal provisions which are currently being used for remediation activities in the country. “We have always relied on international standards for assessment of sites as well as for setting remediation objectives and still will to some extent, however, we will now have soil screening values which will be used in the South Africa. These values will continually be amended as and when necessary depending on what science dictates,” said Acting HOD Bacus.
Acting HOD Bacus expressed his pleasure that local industries would be joining this meeting at the workshop where collectively they can share information and learn from best practices and experiences which have been implemented across the world. We have a combination of very responsible industries who not only put measures to prevent contamination but also has invested in the remediation of contaminated land voluntarily and at own cost. As a country we support the involvement of communities particularly where their livelihoods have or will be affected by the contamination.
Four themes will be discussed at the 11th meeting of the ICCL in 2013. The themes are: Public-private partnerships for site remediation / collaborative clean up process; contaminated site remediation, legal, technical finance and social issues; green technology and encouraging community involvement in site remediation as a core decision making tool.
In closing the Acting HOD Bacus went on to congratulate the ICCL on its 20th year of inception and said that the presentations at the conference would not only be beneficial to South Africa but to all other countries in attendance.
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