2005 is significant in terms of air quality in South Africa as it is the year in which the new air quality governance regime was introduced through the entry into effect of important elements of the new National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act (No.39 of 2004) (AQA).Thus, 2005 is the baseline against which the efficacy of the AQA will be measured.
From 1965 to 2005, the approach to air quality management in South Africa was informed and driven by the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention Act (Act No. 45 of 1965) (APPA). For many years this Act was regarded as ineffective for a number of reasons, not least of which was the broadly held belief that APPA and specifically the way APPA was implemented, had not defended South Africa’s air quality from the emergence of various air pollution hotspots around the country. In essence the emergence of these hotspots is often considered to be a result of APPA’s specific focus on individual source emissions without effectively considering the accumulative impacts of these emissions.
To overcome this, there was a need to start somewhere. And that starting point is the first South African state of air report. This document is first and foremost aimed at providing all South Africans with a picture of what South Africa’s air looked like at that time.
“It also provides a detailed reference work for all South Africans who want to know more about the air they breathe and, in so-doing, aims to deepen our democracy by providing the means for informed participatory air quality governance,” said Rejoice Mabudafhasi, Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs at the launch of the state of the air report 2005 at Emerald Casino in Vanderbijlpark today.
The other important purpose of the report is to give an overview of the state of air quality in South Africa, as well as to provide a baseline on the levels of air pollution in the country.
While it is by no means a perfect document in that the information it contains was put together from various sources, given that up until 2005, there was little, if any, national monitoring or reporting of air quality in South Africa, the publication of this document provides a transparent means of establishing whether the AQA and government’s implementation of the AQA, progressively ensures ambient air quality that is not harmful to health and well being.
However, since 2005 there has been much work on the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Network (NAAQMN) and the South African Air Quality Information System (SAAQIS) and therefore the 2005 report in a sense marks the end of an era by collating all available data up to this point and publishing it as a single comprehensive assessment of air quality at the end of the APPA era. This is the reason why it took so long to complete as, until now, there has not been a single comprehensive document on air quality in South Africa and the information gathered in the report needed to be sourced from all over the place and carefully reviewed.
Although air quality will be reported in future state of the environment reports, with the SAAQIS providing continuously updated air quality information, there is no longer a need for stand alone state of the air reports. Thus, the 2005 state of the air report is a once-off effort that serves to provide a comprehensive documentation of the state of play at the end of an era and the baseline for the new era.
Some of the key state of the air conclusions is, among others:
* Human health impacts, related in particular to inhalation exposures to household coal and wood emissions, remain the most serious and pressing national air pollution problem. Such impacts have been estimated to result in massive direct health spending
* High ambient sulphur dioxide (SO2) and concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM) due primarily to fuel combustion with household, industrial and power-generation sectors, represent ongoing air pollution problems in many parts of South Africa
* Elevated fine particulate (PM10) concentrations occur across the country, with widespread and frequent exceedances of health thresholds. Sulphur dioxide limits are exceeded less frequently and in a more localized way (in the vicinity of significant sources)
* The location of heavy industries and communities of people in close proximity to each other presents persistent health risks and consequent conflict, exacerbated by increased pressure to situate residential areas within former industrial and mining buffer zones
* Emerging air pollution issues are closely associated with the transportation sector, particularly road use. Growing vehicle activity and the ageing of the national vehicle fleet is projected to offset planned and proposed national emission reduction measures aimed at regulating fuel composition and new vehicle technology
* Questions remain regarding potential environmental impacts and the trans-boundary transportation of pollution generated by medium and elevated stack emissions from petrochemical, metallurgical, and mineral-processing operations, and by coal-fired power stations. Concerns have been raised over heavy metal emissions, including mercury and chromium-VI. In these fields, consolidations of existing knowledge as well as further research are necessary
* South Africa is sensitive to global climate change, particularly because global warming is projected to bring a rise in the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods.
* National total CO2-equivalent emissions were reported to have increased by 9.4 percent during the period 1990–1994. This growth was due primarily to the significant rise in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the energy sector, whose contribution increased from 75 percent to 78 percent during this time.
The three source groups contributing most significantly to the energy sector’s CO2- equivalent emissions were energy industries (including electricity generation for the national grid), industry, and transport. The CO2-equivalent emissions increased from all three groups between 1990 and 1994, with transport emissions increasing the most (by 38 percent). Road transportation was reported to contribute more than half of the transport sector’s emissions.
Particularly pressing challenges have been identified. They include; compliance with new, more stringent air quality standards, specifically for particulate matter; understanding and addressing the risks to human health posed by exposure to air-borne hazardous materials; responding to evidence that, for some pollutants, there may be no way to quantify the threshold below which exposure is no longer harmful; mitigating air pollution impacts that disproportionately affect low income communities and reducing industrial emissions without detrimental effects on society and the economy.
Progress made in the development of air quality management includes, but is not limited to, the following; appointment of national, provincial and local air quality officers and establishment of cooperative governance structures, publication of an air quality governance guideline series by national government; initiation of projects to aid the transition from air pollution regulation under the APPA to air quality management under the AQA, including; the transitional phase project; the APPA registration certificate review project; the listed activities and minimum emission standards project and the air quality management planning project; revision of ambient air quality standards; conceptual design of the South African Air Quality Information System, to be hosted by South African Weather Service; Declaration of the Vaal Triangle of the first national priority area and initiation of the Vaal Triangle Priority Area Air Quality Management Plan Development Project; improvements in the number and quality of air quality management courses offered by higher education institutions.
Further work is required in several areas such as cost optimisation of air quality monitoring systems; integration of air quality considerations into transport, and energy and spatial development planning among others.
Mabudafhasi launched the state of air report during the opening session of the fourth Annual Air Quality Governance Lekgotla which is convened by the Department of Environmental Affairs.
For further information on the lekgotla click on the link below:
http://www.airqualitylekgotla.co.za/
For media queries contact:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
Roopa Singh
Cell: 082 225 3076
Issued by: Department of Water and Environmental Affairs
12 October 2009
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