Protecting the Air in South Africa, Peru, and South Asia

The World Health Organization reports that developing world cities face severe levels of urban air pollution - higher than developed world counterparts.  Most of the pollution is generated by vehicles, industry and energy production.  Dirty air kills some 800,000 people every year.  Clean air is a fundamental human right.  Unfortunately, the urban poor bear a disproportionate burden of health problems caused by polluted air, including heart disease, pneumonia and children's asthma.  ELAW is working with partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America to level the playing field for the urban poor and clear the air in some of the world's most polluted cities.  We report on our progress in South Africa, Peru, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.  

South Africa
Toxic smoke spews from factories across South Africa and vehicle emissions pollute South Africa's cities.  ELAW partners Angela Andrews and Eugene Cairncross, based in Cape Town, have been working for more than a decade to clean up South Africa's air.  Angela is an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and Eugene is a professor at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.  Angela represents citizens and community-based organizations that want stronger emissions laws and polluters held accountable.

In 2008, ELAW scientists helped Angela and Eugene review South Africa's draft national industrial pollutant standards, to ensure that they compel compliance and call for using the best available pollution control technology.  The committee drafting these standards will wrap up its work in early 2009.
In 2006, leaded gas was banned in South Africa.  ELAW collaborated with Angela and Eugene to help win that Cabinet decision, making South Africa the first African country to ban lead in gas.  The world's leading manufacturer of lead additives, Octel Corporation, sought to delay the phase-out until 2010.  Angela challenged the proposed delay, and won.
In 2004, ELAW helped Angela and Eugene draft submissions to strengthen the proposed new Air Quality Act.  The statute gave authority to South Africa's regulatory authority to enact, by regulation, emission limits for industrial facilities that are nearing finalization.
In 2003, ELAW helped Angela and LRC attorneys Patrick Pringle and Ellen Nicol persuade environmental authorities to reject a proposal to build a massive hazardous waste incinerator near the low-income township of Sasolberg.  LRC worked with ELAW to win environmental justice for township residents who are unfairly burdened by the impacts of polluting industries in South Africa.  

Peru
Eleven years ago, ELAW began work with partners in Peru seeking justice for the community of La Oroya.  Residents of this remote city in the Peruvian Andes suffered quietly in the shadows of a U.S.- owned smelter that belched cadmium, sulphur dioxide, lead and arsenic-laced smoke.  Hundreds of children here had dangerous levels of lead in their blood.
"When we started working on La Oroya, nobody cared," says ELAW scientist Meche Lu.  "There was no information in Peru's mainstream media, no community awareness, denial from the government, and absolute freedom for the company to pollute.  Today we see positive change."
Meche is a Peruvian biochemist.  She worked closely with ELAW Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik and with environmental toxicologists Stephen Rothenberg and Howard Mielke at Xavier University to carry out soil and dust analysis in La Oroya.  The results were shocking.  Every sample contained dangerous amounts of lead, cadmium, arsenic and other toxics.
In response to the community outcry, the Government acknowledged, for the first time, the seriousness of the health hazard and flagged La Oroya as a "priority area" in Peru's Air Quality Act.  The Government and the Doe Run Corporation were forced to take steps to clean up the mess.  The Blacksmith Institute named La Oroya one of the world's 10 most polluted places and international media has helped keep the pressure on.

In late 2008, Doe Run installed a sulphuric acid plant to help capture SO2 emissions.
"The public awareness raised in La Oroya has given courage to other communities in Peru to speak out against polluting multinational mining companies and defend their right to a healthy environment," says Meche. 
Meche says, "La Oroya symbolizes the strength it takes to win environmental justice in Latin America.  Even though mining is a highly profitable activity, it rarely improves the living conditions of local people.  Local movements, like the one in La Oroya, are the best defense of the fundamental right to a healthy environment."
ELAW continues to support the people of La Oroya and groups in Peru working for environmental justice.

Cleaning up the Air in South Asia

M.C. Mehta Environmental Lawyer

Severe air pollution threatens congested cities throughout South Asia. ELAW is working with partners in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India to seek compliance with court orders to clean up the air.
Residents of Dhaka, Bangladesh (population 12 million) are choking on noxious vehicle emissions. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh passed orders to reduce pollution from motor vehicles and mandated the establishment of motor vehicle emission inspection stations.
ELAW is working with the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association to enforce these court orders.
The Government of Bangladesh now requires that all new motor vehicles be equipped with a catalytic converter and has banned new licenses for two-stroke three-wheelers - the vehicles responsible for the majority of toxic emissions in Dhaka.
ELAW is working with partners in Pakistan and Sri Lanka to seek compliance with similar court orders. In Pakistan, the Supreme Court has mandated motor vehicle inspection and in Sri Lanka the court has ordered the establishment of air pollution emission standards.
In India, ELAW is working with one of the world's leading environmental lawyers, M.C. Mehta, to clean up the air and hold polluters accountable. Years ago, ELAW provided M.C. with evidence that he used to show that sulfur dioxide emissions from a petroleum refinery and iron foundries were corroding the marble in the Taj Mahal. Since M.C. began work on this case in 1984, the court has closed more than 600 industries in the name of preserving the national treasure and insisted that new buildings employ cleaner technologies.

PHOTO: Mridula Dwivedi

While visiting ELAW recently, M.C. spoke about the long term impact of this work, including the installation of an air pollution monitor on the grounds of the Taj Mahal. He said, "There is no hiding now. The pollution monitor is there for everyone to see."