 | Lies being spread about so-called Yara ‘poisoning’ in Paarl
13 March 2023 | Press Releases |
10 March 2023
Drakenstein Municipality wants to caution the community of Drakenstein not to believe the lies and slanderous statements being spread on social media by a particular individual that municipal officials are responsible for or condoning so-called “poisoning” by the Yara fertiliser handling and bagging facility in Charleston Hill, Paarl.
These statements and allegations are untruthful and defamatory, and necessitated the Municipality to issue a formal letter to this individual this week, requesting him to remove and delete these posts from social media platforms and to refrain from placing any further such posts. These posts are misleading and are enabling others to share and comment on false statements and allegations, which exacerbates the unlawfulness and increasing inciteful effects of the individual’s posts.
The Municipality further wishes to, once more, set the record straight regarding the state of the air quality surrounding Yara Africa Fertilizer (PTY) Ltd.
As a caring and responsible municipality, Drakenstein Municipality and its officials have gone beyond its call of duty when Yara’s application for the expansion of their facility was assessed to ensure:
1) that concerns raised by the community in this regard were taken into account without delay;
2) that the air quality was monitored and assessed by independent environmental specialists (of which the findings were communicated to the community via a public participation process); and
3) that Yara is instructed to implement very stringent monitoring and mitigation measures to keep on ensuring that its operations do not have a detrimental impact on human health or the environment, if they were to implement the proposed expansion.
The Municipality went even further by involving air quality officials from the Cape Winelands District Municipality (CWDM) and the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) to conduct a site visit of the facility during July 2019 – together with Drakenstein Municipality’s air quality officials.
No contraventions of air quality legislation were found during this visit. Further to this site visit, the CWDM and the DEA&DP confirmed that Yara’s proposed expanded operations would neither require an Atmospheric Emissions License (in terms of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act No. 39 of 2004) nor an Environmental Authorisation (in terms of the National Environmental Management Act No. 108 of 1998).
Yara - which has been operating since 2010 according to documentation on record and employs approximately 270 people, many of which are local community members - also undertook its own independent air quality monitoring campaign.
The results of both independent air quality monitoring campaigns – by Drakenstein Municipality and by Yara - showed that the parameters measured were within the legal standards.
Despite this, some individuals or small part of the community still insisted that the operation has an adverse effect on their health. These perceptions were, however, never backed up by technical data or tests, despite the Municipality repeatedly inviting these community members to share their data with the Municipality’s air quality officials to investigate.
Drakenstein Municipality understands its mandate and fulfills its duty to ensure that residents have access to a healthy and safe environment. It is compliant and will not allow or condone any illegal activities. Despite these individuals’ opinion, the Municipality followed all due processes as required by law, and took the necessary additional steps to ensure that the community are not negatively affected by Yara’s operations.
Issued by: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality
