Raising environmental awareness
OMEBODY has to take a stand. We need people to advocate for a better lifestyle.” This is the appeal from veteran environmental activist Desmond D’sa, who is hoping a new generation of concerned citizens will take activism to greater heights.
“We need to start sharing information and educating others on the importance of environmental activism,” D’sa said at a seminar in Durban last week.
Titled, “Raising Awareness, Engaging the Public through Activism & Changing Behaviour & Public Policy”, the event was part of Regent Business School’s Critical Conversations in Sustainability.
Focusing mainly on the the importance of environmental activism and raising more awareness, D’sa, of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDEA), and groundwork director and fellow environmental activist, Bobby Peek, expressed their concerns.
“We exist as people to resist what is bad,” said Peek.
The pair – recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize, in 1998 and 2014, respectively, said environmental awareness was vital because it promoted sustainability, and encouraged communities to be more conservative with natural resources.
They addressed issues like community involvement, the effects of pollution on residents and on risking their lives standing against the destruction of the environment.
They said they had their environmental protection projects in a small room with only one typewriter and the little information they could access from libraries.
D’sa recalled the days when young children would get sick and how community members would rush to help.
“Children got sick late at night; it was the dead of night and we rushed them to hospital and I believe that’s what shaped us,” said D’sa.
“It’s the realisation of that night, when young children got sick because of the pollution in our area that we decided to stand up for our community, and we have both been walking the talk for 21 years.”
Both men lamented the fact that pollution in the south Durban area was not getting any better. According to D’sa, a school in the area is paying the price for its location, as many of its pupils’ health deteriorate due to the amount of fumes they inhale.
“Many residents that grew up and live in this area suffer with chronic asthma. My whole family and myself we suffer as well,” he said. “We also found that there is an alarming increase of younger children infected with leukaemia in this area.”
D’sa told POST he was aware of seven local children with the disease.
Added Peek: “I’m not a doctor but I do know that benzene is known to cause cancer. We don’t know how much benzene children from the south of Durban are exposed to, so yes, I believe this fumes that is being passed along is causing several cases of leukaemia in children.”
A Merebank parent, who recently lost her child to leukaemia, also believes the pollution was a contributing factor.
“Merebank is a small place. My daughter had this disease, a few doors away there’s another child with it. This pollution has affected everyone in my family. I wish someone would go around doing a survey of all the kids suffering and someone sees the shocking stats,” she said.
The mother, who still feels the void of not having her child by her side, said she grew up in the area with her family. All her siblings suffer from asthma and have skin problems.
“My dad died of an asthmatic heart attack. There are so many people here with skin problems, some people grow fruit in their yard, sometimes they can’t eat it because it goes off. We don’t know the effect these chemicals in the air is having on our fruit and vegetable garden.”
Pollution in the area has been in the spotlight for years and D’sa said they have been fighting big companies for so long that their lives and the lives of their family members have been put at risk many times.
“I will never back down from a good cause,” he said.