Environmental Justice before Democracy
Industrial developments in Africa have been characterised by a lot of environmental injustices levelled at poor communities that live in close proximity to these operations. Africans are therefore, suffering the most environmental degradation caused by economic developments that only benefit a few people in the Northern and the Western parts of the globe. In many ways these economic developments have deprived poor communities in Africa, of their environmental and human rights.
Under apartheid South Africa, many families found themselves displaced either forcefully to make way for the proposed economic development or voluntarily in search of better income and job opportunities in spite of the unhealthy environmental conditions they had to live in. Undoubtedly, industrialisation accounts for lower availability of safe drinking water, high-level pressure on wood fuel resources, and declining food production in rural communities and mass migration to urban areas. In examining the relationship between environmental degradation and urban growth, these factors have been found to be the most critical ones for urban migration.
However, the most powerful indicator of ecological degradation is a high infant mortality rate due to the exposure of these poor communities to all sorts of respiratory illnesses, caused by the highest levels of air pollution found in developing countries. South Africa being the most industrialised country on the continent, also suffers the worst of this pollution and its consequences. These poor communities cannot afford to live in areas safely distanced from smoke stacks and other hazardous developmental repercussions. During the apartheid era, people learned to live with these injustices and concentrated on liberating the country from oppression believing that victory in this regard will automatically bring about relief from the environmental injustice.
Globalisation has increased the concentration and exercise of economic power, which has enabled international business to hold emerging nations hostage. In return for business, international capitalism, backed by the three Bretton Wood Institutions, demands to be free from accountability for the consequences of their business from the past, the present, and in the future. Investors declare that they may not be held responsible for the social, environmental or personal effects of their practice.
Environmental Justice underDemocracy
The transition to democracy did not bring about the automatic freedom from environmental injustices that we were all hoping for, because it was trumped by transition to neoliberalism. In response to the promised increase in foreign direct investment, and in its effort to manage transition, the new South African government adopted neo-liberal economic policies that resulted in the need for liberalisation of financial and trade markets, deregulation of certain key sectors in the economy, privatisation of state assets, and commodification of basic services like water and sanitation.
The adoption of neo-liberal economic policies in the absence of systems to monitor the implementation, enforcement and compliance of industry and communities’ rights is compromising the environment and public health. South Africa’s democracy and the rest of Africa as well as the dignity of their citizens is threatened by corporate paternalism. Corporate paternalism exposes communities to the hegemony, of the neo-liberal development agenda, which comes in the form of commodification and exploitation of labour and natural resources.
Fortunately, in South Africa our environmental rights are entrenched within the country’s constitution. Furthermore, the National Environmental Management Act No.107 of 1998 clearly defines how everyone, including industry, must conduct business in a manner that will promote and protect the environmental rights of others as pronounced in Section 24 of the constitution.
However, poor communities in this country still suffer environmental injustices in the form of lack of access to safe drinking water, loss of biodiversity, exposure to environmental health hazards environmental degradation, toxic industrial fumes and many other ecological damages.
Access to Quality Water
Industry, including the energy sector, uses four times as much water as for domestic users and accounts or 80 percent of water use in developed countries. In developing countries, however, industry accounts for only a small percentage of water use. In both developed and developing countries, the industrial sector is the largest contributor to water pollution. Industrial effluents, nitrates and salts from irrigation processes pollute water from run-offs into streams and rivers. Apart from the disturbances on the ecosystem, water pollution causes illnesses in communities living downstream of the factories. An example of this situation is the mercury poisoning of communities in KwaZulu Natal by the operations of Thor Chemicals. The Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) has been involved in helping the affected communities sue the company for compensation.
As a scarce resource that crosses political boundaries, water is also, increasingly, a source of international conflicts. People in poor countries are removed from their homes to make way for the construction of dams that are earmarked for industrial development. Stronger countries formulate unfair economic policies that disadvantage others in terms of access to shared resources. The construction of the Katse Dam in Lesotho has brought about a lot of environmental degradation and suffering to the Basotho people by restricting their access to the water that has been their livelihood.
Under our new democracy, communities’ right to access clean and safe water is being violated by water privatisation deals that municipalities enter into with conglomerates from rich Western countries. These deals basically give all control to these multinational companies. While state officials claim modest credit for the delivery of public goods like water and sanitation, electricity and telephones. An independent and authoritative study by McDonald and Pape carried out in 2003 tells us that ten million cut-offs in the water and electricity sectors have occurred because people have been unable to pay their bills. EJNF, the Anti- Privatisation forum and the ECC are participating in the Anti-water Privatisation Coalition to bring about change in this sector.
Waste Management
The poor are also disproportionately affected by volumes of hazardous waste that is produced in developed countries and exported to developing countries which do not have proper facilities to treat it or clear environmental policies. This places citizens in these countries at high risk of harm by hazardous industrial substances. Often, exported hazardous waste is classified as primary production material for recycling and recovery operations (which leaves a residue of hazardous waste and exposes workers and the environment to these substances) in countries with weak or nonexistent standards for human and environmental protection. An example of a company that is involved in such activities is Thor Chemicals Mercury Poisoning.
Conclusion
The factors addressed here account for what we can call the institutionalisation of poverty and environmental degradation that result in a social trap. These developments indicate imperfections in the unregulated free market approach to resource allocation, which relies on making the best profit in the shortest possible time. It is therefore correct to argue that the role of a democratic government is to eliminate social traps, while maintaining as much individual freedom as possible, in situations where social forces will not on their own be favourable for the majority.
Multinationals determine and limit access to resources that might otherwise be considered open to access. Because the poor have always been the victims of these social traps and usually they are not aware of their right to demand reparations.
By Ace Khabane – Environmental Justice Networking
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