SDCEA staff Bongani Mthembu shows the Durban port landscape, filled with refineries, dumping sites, and other industrial plants.
A funder shares her site visit experience demonstrating the reality of environmental racism
Sasha Rabsey, vice chair of IDEX’s board of directors, wrote this piece while visiting IDEX’s long-term grantee, SDCEA, in South Africa. IDEX (International Development Exchange), an Exponent Philanthropy member, invests in grassroots leaders in the Global South.
My eyes are burning. My nose is running. My throat is dry and the “toxic tour” of South Durban has not even begun.
After only 30 minutes in this community I can only imagine what it is like to spend one’s life here; a life shortened by cancer, asthma, skin diseases, and a variety of undiagnosed ailments. The heavy pollution and toxins are due to unregulated emissions and leaks from two oil refineries, a paper mill, a waste plant, and a variety of other industries. Then there is the serious environmental degradation from Durban’s world-class port.
It is not lost on me that everyone in this community is either black or mixed race; this is the face of environmental racism.
We start our “toxic tour” in the low brick offices of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), at the back end of a nursing home. We are so fortunate to have the founder of SDCEA, Desmond D’Sa, a highly respected and admired community activist, as our tour guide. D’Sa is the recipient of a 2014 Goldman Award for environmental activism.
We begin by visiting the highest lookout point in the city where we have a panoramic view of three oil refineries, the ocean, the port, and small-scale farms slated for destruction to make room for port expansion. SDCEA staff, Bongani Mthembu and Priya Pillay, describe in a passionate narrative the devastating environmental degradation of South Durban from underground refinery leaks, to ocean waters that burn the skin of local fisher-folk due to refinery dumping, to exposure of high levels of chromium 6. To add insult to injury, the Durban port expansion will increase the already monumental negative impacts on the health and well-being of this community.
SDCEA director Desmond D’sa ends the “toxic tour” at a local landmark in South Durban. The plague reads, “This stone represents the strength and the sensitivity of President Nelson Mandela who listened and acted on the concerns of the Wentworth Community on 25 March 1995. His humility will inspire our community.”
Our next stop is to see Bulbul, the illegal toxic chemical dump-site that SDCEA singlehandedly closed down with fierce perseverance and tenacity. I am thrilled to see the work that was the impetus for the Goldman Award. As we drive up the long and empty dirt road, we pass three trucks filled with illegally obtained sand. A company that builds government-supported housing that displaces indigenous and impoverished blacks will use that sand to make cement. Every victory seems to come with a step back.
At this point in the “toxic tour,” my brain is feeling close to saturation point with all the information. I am also a bit emotionally overwhelmed by the complexities of what I am learning. And then I am hit in the gut.
We arrive at Settlers Primary School, nestled in a tidy residential community amidst pine trees and ocean breeze. I get out of the car, take a deep breath and get a heavy whiff of rotten eggs; sulfur. I look up and see the smoke stacks from the two oil refineries and paper mill that surround the school. Though I can’t see those industry buildings, I can smell them. This school is at the intersection of a toxic hot zone and has the highest rates of leukemia, asthma, and skin diseases in the entire community. All around us there are children happily running around the schoolyard, present yet unaware of life’s realities.
SDCEA presented the government with an environmental impact study of this situation which they could not ignore. Their response was to put in a monitoring station that reads the particulate matter in the air falling into the schoolyard.
However, for accurate readings, this monitoring station would need to be high in the air. What we saw was a box situated in the farthest corner and lowest point of the schoolyard with a gauge that didn’t even reach the top of the fence. If meaningful readings depend on height, clearly, this is a failure. Desmond says they will continue to harangue the government until the station is giving accurate readings.
While we listen to one of the teachers, who has been a fierce and loyal advocate for the children, two shy, giggly little girls stand quietly waiting until the adults have finished. I ask if I can take their picture and they nod yes and offer two beautiful smiles. Still filled with the wonders of life, they fill my heart with hope. I know Desmond and everyone at SDCEA will continue to lobby and embarrass the government and industry for healthier lives for these children.
Later, after we travel next to Cape Town, I walk on the boardwalk along the ocean, taking in the majesty of Table Mountain on one side and the crashing waves of high tide on the other. I see two other little girls, identical twins with blond hair and blue eyes. They too are filled with the wonders of life, skipping arm in arm.
I cannot help but think of the different trajectory of their lives had they been born brown-skinned girls from South Durban.
All photos are courtesy of IDEX and SDCEA.
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Sasha Rabsey is the founder and director of the HOW Fund and HOW Fellowship, which support international mentorship programs for girls, and is co-founder of the innovative Present Purpose Network, a group of highly engaged women funders in the U.S. and Europe making critical grassroots grants through informed collective giving.
