Ways to address pollution crisis in Bay

Law enforcement, education campaigns, infrastructure upgrades and eco-jobs mooted

NKANDLA is background noise – the real issue is plastic  pollution.

That’s the view of NMMU marine biologist Professor Nadine Strydom, one of eight people working  in the environmental field who responded to Weekend Post’s survey to identify key eco-challenges in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Strydom said plastic pollution was emerging as a fundamental problem all over the world and the situation is particularly bad in South Africa and the Bay.

Plentiful production of plastic bags and packaging, poor waste management, low anti-litter consciousness, little recycling and a proliferation of service strikes sees plastic blown or carried by rainfall run-off into rivers and the bay.

“The danger we’re realising now is micro-plastics where plastic waste disintegrates into 5mm bits and these get into the food chain including into animals and   humans  where they can damage endocrine systems and key body functions.

“Nkandla is background noise compared to this – this is a ticking time bomb.

“We need the metro to increase public awareness of this crisis and to promote recycling and penalise littering hard.”

Other hotspots that emerged in our survey included eco-education, water, population, poverty, Bayworld, the Swartkops Estuary and Baakens Valley, rogue development, government accountability, eco-jobs and  a local economy.

The Weekend Post survey was prompted by an initiative by the Wildlife and Environment Society (Wessa), explained in their latest newsletter.  Looking ahead to next year’s local government election, they ask, “What are the critical environmental issues facing your town or city you would like your local government representative to address? Wessa would like to collect your views and ideas and put them to the candidates for next year’s election to elicit their responses prior to the elections.”

The society calls on residents to log their ideas on the Wessa Facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/WildlifeandEnvironmentSocietyofSA ), making it clear to which municipality the questions should be directed.

Two landmark international events last week frame this initiative: the deal signed by 143 nations at the UN headquarters in New York  on of a new list of 17 goals to achieve sustainable development; and the publication of WWF’s  Living Blue Planet Report revealing shocking deterioration of our oceans.

So, against this backdrop – what do residents in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) think are the key environmental issues? And how can local government help?

Eddy Molekoa, education and rehabilitation manager at the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (Samrec) at Cape Recife, said  new ways have to be found to get the eco-message through to the marginalised and less educated masses of people.

“It’s a  crisis.  NGOs need partnership from the municipality to help us get through to these communities. If we can do that then all the problems can be solved.”

Much of his eco-education work relates to water and its importance to wildlife and people, he said.  “For instance, Port Elizabeth is surrounded by wetlands but we’re messing them up with bad development.  There are animals that rely on them  but they have functions also to purify water and prevent floods and droughts. By  destroying them we are   endangering ourselves.”

Environmental awareness campaigns need to be taken into the townships and sustained over long periods, he said. “For people to care about something they need to know about it  and understand it.”

Senior environmental consultant Dr Mike Cohen, the former director of Eastern Cape Nature Conservation,  said the grim nexus of over-population and poverty is  the gravest threat to the environment in the Bay.  The population of the planet is rapidly reaching unsustainable levels and the parallel growth rate in the Bay is critical, he said.

“We may soon be faced with resource shortages.”

At the same time, “as a country and  a metro we will never solve our critical environmental problems until we break the poverty cycle”.

It’s a vicious circle, he explained. Propelled by population growth, there is a massive demand for affordable housing “and to meet this demand the metro is expanding in an unplanned and unsustainable manner into ecologically sensitive areas causing critical losses of species and destruction of ecological services like the provision of clean air and water.”

Municipal infrastructure and services are put under strain, leading to pollution of  land, freshwater and the sea.

“The poor are the most vulnerable and suffer with pollution-related diseases,” he said. “It is imperative that the metro adopts a comprehensive integrated approach to environmental management.”

Veteran human rights activist, former ANC MP and environmental campaigner Judy Chalmers said the deterioration of Bayworld is a critical environmental issue she feels the metro should address.

“It is a tragedy that funding is not being allocated. Bayworld is a key part of who we are and what we have. It’s vital  children learn how to protect and grow our natural environment for generations to come. The metro needs to help get Bayworld back on track.”

In Algoa Bay the municipality is blessed with one of the finest bays in the world and this resource must be protected,  she said. “I think the original siting of the fish farm was ill thought through and I’m happy they’re now re-thinking it.”

Zwartkops Conservancy spokesman and former Herald Citizen of the Year Jenny Rump said more maintenance of sewerage and stormwater infrastructure needs to be done to stops spills before they happen.

Waste  water treatment works must be upgraded and there must be a vigorous campaign to educate people on what can and can’t go into a flush toilet to help fix  the  chronic drain blockage and consequent pollution spill problem.

Adjacent to the estuary, the Aloes and Zwartkops nature reserves urgently need more staff to show a sustained presence  to combat poaching and dumping, she said. “They are a free for all at the moment and something needs to be done before it is too late.”

Arnold Slabbert co-director of wildlife rescue group Wildline said the “green lung” of the Baakens Valley was  succumbing to infestation by alien plants and sewage spills.  Stock is being grazed and rubbish dumped on public commonage. Environmental laws are  being flouted by developers and government.

“Examples include how the metro continues to let sewage run into the Baakens and how they have allowed development to wreck the sensitive sponge area of the upper Baakens.

“We need to see  conservation staff out there doing their jobs that they are paid well to do. We need open reports so we can see what our rates and taxes are paying for.”

Wessa education officer Pearl Jonas said the metro needed to establish more controlled dump sites, as well as waste buy-back and recycling centres.

“This will help clean up our communities and create jobs.

“The metro also needs to recommit to  alien plant removal projects, which will also create jobs.”

Transition Network co-founder Pierrelouis Lemercier said a new local economic paradigm based on empowering and capacitating communities to manage their own livelihoods was the way to solve the problems besetting people and their environment in the Bay.

“We need the metro to support and to help to launch a pilot project to prove the value of this system where a community can take care of its nutrition, water, energy and work needs in a sustainable way, in balance with the environment.”