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South Africa's smoggy Sasolburg highlights conflict in between economy and clean air

From the moment Mpho Putsoenyane's child Hlompho was born in Zamdela, a South African area beside the smokestacks and gas flares of Sasol's oldest coaltoliquid refinery, the baby struggled to breathe.

Last year, when she was four months old, she turned purple and started gasping. Her parents hurried the baby to health center, where medics only just revived her heart with a defibrillator, Putsoenyane recalls.

We were terrified, she informed Reuters at her brick cottage, pausing to wipe away tears. We thought she was going to pass away. Sasolburg, as the petrochemical giant's refinery town north of Zamdela is called, has been determined by federal government authorities as one of several areas of South Africa in urgent requirement of cutting hazardous air pollution from burning coal.

It likewise encapsulates a problem facing numerous coal-dependent countries: how to decrease emissions of hazardous air pollutants without harming strategic industries or eliminating low-skilled tasks.

Coal keeps 90,000 individuals in work and produces 80% of South Africa's electrical power and a 3rd of its liquid fuel, a. carbon-intensive and extremely contaminating procedure that Sasol. originated throughout white minority guideline.

When Reuters visited the town 80 km (50 miles) southwest of. Johannesburg last month, it was masked in smog and pervaded by. the stink of sulphur. Putsoenyane was amongst 4 households that. Reuters talked to with breathing issues they blamed on the air.

When Hlompho's moms and dads took her to a lung expert in the. nearby huge city, Bloemfontein, the woman immediately improved.

As soon as they got home, however, she was rasping again. The. doctor blamed air pollution and stated she wouldn't recuperate unless. they moved, Putsoenyane stated.

But we can't move, Putsoenyane said. Her partner Joseph. works for a company offering services to Sasol. It has paid for. their school costs, TV, stereo and microwave, to name a few. features of modern life.

So I took her to my father's home in (neighbouring). Lesotho. Since, she's been great, Putsoenyane said.

However I only see her every six months.

HEALTH ISSUE IN THE COAL BELT

A just recently released government-sponsored study took a look at 700. school kids aged 9 to 14 who had been exposed to high levels. of pollution in the Highveld coal belt west of Johannesburg,. where Sasol has a separate plant and where numerous coal-fired. power stations also run.

The research study discovered air passage swelling, abnormal lung. function, and asthma symptoms.

To attempt to attend to the problem, the government in 2010. set tougher, legally-binding minimum emissions standards for. pollutants like sulphur dioxide.

The Highveld and Sasolburg are among South Africa's. most contaminated regions ... to address this, the government. declared these as top priority locations to improve the air people. breathe, environment department spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa. said.

However Sasol and other big air polluters have repeatedly - and. effectively - looked for short-term exemptions from contamination rules.

The business lobbied, in personal letters to the environment. department in October 2022 and March in 2015, for less. rigid emissions standards for older facilities because of. the cost of trying to retrofit pollution filters.

A Sasol spokesperson referred Reuters to an August 2023. declaration stating that numerous (clean air) technologies ... were. discovered to be virtually infeasible to install in Sasol's. existing plants.

The spokesperson did not react to an additional ask for. talk about the particular case of Hlompho and her family.

The private letters, seen , were gotten by. shareholder activist group Simply Share under flexibility of. information laws.

The nationwide air quality officer initially turned down Sasol's. plea, federal government documents show. However in April, then environment. minister Barbara Creecy overruled the decision to grant Sasol. its exemption.

While Sasol ...

(source: Reuters)