The Member of the Mayoral Committee on Environmental Resource Management, Clr Ndosi Shongwe, recently called on industries producing carbon emissions to adhere to strict environmental laws, in order to assist the municipality to achieve clean air.
Speaking in Germiston, at the seminar held to discuss environmental legal compliance, the MMC reported that the City of Ekurhuleni is working hard to address the 2014 findings by the National Air Quality, which found that the city had the worst air pollution.
“The findings are an unwelcome, poor image on our part and we need you, as industries, to join hands with us to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
”One of our priorities is to create a clean and green city and the issue of gas emissions becomes critical,” said Shongwe.
As part of its response strategy to ensuring cleaner air, Ekurhuleni has established a specialised unit – the Legal Compliance – put in place to assist industries to obtain Atmospheric Emission Licences and provide guidelines on how to comply with set emission limits.
The specialised unit is also responsible for monitoring the industrial community, through spot checks and ensuring compliance of the municipal by-laws.
“As industries we need to be mindful of the health risk of pollution to our people,” said Shongwe.
“On our part, as the municipality, we have begun a process to green our municipal by-laws, which will see an amendment to some laws that govern harmful emissions.
“We believe this will ensure that all industrial and municipal activities comply with the standards and requirements of protecting and caring for the environment.”
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