PROGRESS ON PRIORITY AREAS IMPLEMENTATION AND THE VAAL HEALTH STUDY HRA Climate Change and Air Quality

PURPOSE OF THE BRIEFING To provide a summary of the progress with the implementation of air quality management plans (AQMPs) in the National Air Quality Priority Areas, including: –progress with respect to the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area Health study –state of Air in the Priority Areas To provide a summary of the decision made regarding the applications for postponement of compliance timeframes in terms of the Air Quality Act, Section 21 Notice. 2

BACKGROUND The Vaal Triangle Air-shed Priority Area (VTAPA) was declared a priority area in 2006 and the AQMP was published in 2009 for implementation. The Highveld Priority Area (HPA) was declared in 2007 and the AQMP was published in The Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area (WBPA) was declared in 2012 and the AQMP is currently under development. 3

CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMMES BY DEA The department has undertaken several capacity building initiatives to provincial and municipal air quality officials in the priority area, including: –Air quality monitoring –Stack emission monitoring and reporting of AELs –Vehicle Emission Testing and Awareness Workshop –Air Quality Legislations and related regulations In addition, the Department has held several workshops to capacitate NGOs on air quality matters so that they can engage effectively in AQMP implementation 4

CAPACITY BUILDING BY AUTHORITIES COJ conducted the Basa nje ngo magogo campaigns in Orange farm, focusing on various hot spots such as taxi rank and over 1000 homes were visited on a door to door in Emfuleni LM has a Radio Slot at VUT FM since early The program ran from 11:00 to 11:30 every Monday discussing issues relating to environmental education and awareness. Air quality is among the issues that are regularly discussed on the program. The station has approximately daily local listeners Sedibeng DM has been planning to host a fun run to raise awareness on air quality issues. The fun run got a little bit delayed due to delays in receiving approval from the top management. The campaign was going to be funded by industries within the area. GDARD has conducted a Basa nje ngo magogo campaigns in various areas including priority area. They also conducted a school competition. A number of schools within priority area participated on the campaign. NDM conducted a number of clean up campaigns and implemented a tree planting program, where about 600 trees were planted. 5

CAPACITY BUILDING BY NGOs VEJA conducted a community workshop at Zamdela Arts and Cultural Centre, Sasolburg in February The workshop was aimed at mobilizing more community members within the surrounding area in becoming more aware of the air quality issues affecting them daily. VEJA together with Botle ba Tlhaho Environmental Group (BBTEG), had an air quality and climate change workshop organized at the Rock of Agnes Ministries in zone 10 extension 1, Sebokeng. The involved cleaning of the public space and tree planting. Participation was received from local women groups, local Community Development Workers, local priest and members of community. A number of government agencies were also invited. VEJA and DEA provided presentations on air quality issues and implications of declaring VTAPA as a priority area to the community. VEJA also conducted a workshop with SAMANCO Retrenched Ex-workers in Sebokeng, Zone 6 and was held in December. The workshop was meant to inform community on the processes of implementing the VTAPA AQMP and how communities can get involved. 6

COORDINATION The department has established the following two structure to oversee and coordinate implementation of the AQMPs in both priority areas: –Multi-Stakeholder reference Group (MSRG): is a body that oversee the implementation of the AQMPs and is held twice a year. –Implantation Task Teams (ITTs): ITTs are responsible for the coordination and implementation of the AQMPs and meet quarterly 7

INTERVENTIONS BY INDUSTRY The following industries presented their report on implementation of emission reduction plans over the period of 2013 to 2014: –HPA: Evraz Highveld, SASOL Secunda, Eskom, Impala Platinum, Anglo America, Columbus, Exxaro, Victoria Bricks, ERGO mining (PTY) LTD, Shanduka Coal Mine, Much Asphalt, Frys metals –VTAPA: Natref, Cape Gate (Pty) Ltd, Arcellomittal South Africa - Vanderbijlpark Works, Dixon and Rock Fibre, Eskom, Omnia, Ocon brick, Dawn Sanitary, Sasol - Sasolburg 8

PROGRESS ON WBPA AQMP DEVELOPMENT The Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area AQMP development process has commenced and entailed: –the establishment of the baseline to characterise current sources of emissions and their impacts, –the threat assessment to establish future threats a result of strategic infrastructure projects envisaged in the area –Gap analysis and intervention strategies The draft AQMP has been compiled and shared with the MSRG. The AQMP is currently awaiting approval for publication in the Gazette for public comment. 9

STATE OF AIR: HPA. 10 Particulate matter

STATE OF AIR: HPA 11 Sulphur dioxide

STATE OF AIR: HPA Highveld PM10, SO2, NO2 and O3 exceedances against NAAQS in PM 10 (4)PM 2.5 (4)SO 2 (4)NO 2 (88)O 3 (11) Ermelo Hendrina Middelburg Secunda eMalahleni

STATE OF AIR: HPA. 13

STATE OF AIR: VTAPA. 14 Particulate matter

STATE OF AIR: VTAPA 15 Sulphur dioxide

STATE OF AIR: VTAPA VTAPA PM10, SO2, NO2 and O3 exceedances against NAAQS in PM 10 (4)PM 2.5 (4)SO 2 (4)O 3 (11)NO 2 (88) Diepkloof Klipriver Sebokeng Sharpville Three Rivers Zamdela

STATE OF AIR: VTAPA 17

VAAL HEALTH STUDY The Department of Environmental Affairs is currently conducting a health study in the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area (VTAPA). The study consist of three parts namely: – ( i) community health survey, – (ii) child medical survey and – (iii) human health risk assessment (HHRA), The aim of the study is to determine the current health status of the population in the VTAPA and to provide baseline information required for the planning and management of the priority area. The study focused on the following communities for data availability and budgetary reasons: –Zamdela, –Sharpville, –Three Rivers, –Sebokeng, –Kliprivier and –Diepkloof 18

VAAL HEALTH STUDY - Human Health Risk Assessment Only the Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) has been completed so far During HHRA, hazard quotients (HQs) are calculated based on ambient air quality concentrations of a pollutant in relation to ambient standard. HQs describes the level of population health risk - a HQ of less than 1 indicates that the population is not at risk and HQ of more than 1 means that the population is at risk (moderate to high) for a given pollutant. The results revealed that: Sulphur dioxide (for both the hourly and daily exposure limit) does not pose any health risk to the community and thus, it has an HQ of less than 1. This is mainly because the SO 2 levels are seldom exceeded consistently for the identified stations in the study area. For NO 2, the hourly exposure limit does not pose any health risk while the annual exposure limit poses moderate health risk to the Diepkloof and Zamdela communities. These communities are at the highest risk to chronic health effects due to exposure to NO 2 in relation to others in the VTAPA. Nitrogen dioxide causes a decrease in lung function and chronic exposure to NO 2 increases susceptibility to respiratory infections. PM 10 (for both daily and annual exposure limits) poses a moderate to high health risk to the Sebokeng, Zamdela, and Kliprivier communities (it has an HQ of above 1) – these are the communities most affected by PM 10. PM 10 is responsible for health impacts such as cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular effects, cerebrovascular-stroke and mortality 19

VAAL HEALTH STUDY - Human Health Risk Assessment Annual PM10 HQs for different areas in the VTAPA 20

VAAL HEALTH STUDY - Vulnerability Assessment Vulnerability assessment was done based on population sensitivity (children below 15 years of age and the elderly above 65 years of age) and socioeconomic status (the unemployed, people living below the poverty level of R400 per person per month and people who live in informal houses). Different areas in the VTAPA were found to have different vulnerability scores as shown : 21

VAAL HEALTH STUDY - Vulnerability assessments x HQs Taking into consideration both population vulnerability/sensitivity and prevailing PM concentrations; it is clear that people living east of Three Rivers and west of Sebokeng are three to seven times at risk of suffering from health impacts associated with PM than the rest of the population in the VTAPA. 22

VAAL HEALTH STUDY - Medical survey The medical survey has been undertaken to assess the impacts of air pollution on the lung function of school children (240 leaners, Grade 3-6). Lung function tests have been done at the four selected primary schools within a 1-2km radius of the monitoring stations in the Diepkloof, Zamdela, Sharpeville and Sebokeng during winter and summer months. The preliminary test results are currently being analysed to establish relationships between lung function and air pollution. The report on medical survey will be available in April

VAAL HEALTH STUDY - Community survey The community survey (sample of 1000 households) has been completed as well as multi-variate analysis. The community survey seeks to establish the prevalence of respiratory illnesses within sampled communities as well as possible compounding factors. The results of the community survey will be available in June

THANK YOU 25