Picketers demand accountability in UPL chemical spill (Watch)

About 80 people marched through Umdloti this morning demanding stricter environmental legislation, saying that companies dealing in dangerous chemicals require closer monitoring. 

Motivated by the potentially devastating environmental fall-out from the United Phsophorous Limited (UPL) chemical warehouse at Cornubia which was set alight during the unrest in July, the picketers said the potential long-term effects on human and environmental health had not yet been determined but were likely to be serious. 

Water firefighters used to extinguish the blaze sent chemicals down a spillway into the Ohlanga river and its estuary.

March organisers, South Durban Environmental Community Alliance (SDCEA) and the UPL Cornubia Fire Civil Society Action group, said on Friday morning that they would also not accept the UPL report which deemed beaches safe to reopen.

On Thursday UPL supplied eThekwini Municipality with a report indicating as much, compiled and written by undisclosed independent specialists. 

eThekwini closed beaches from the Umgeni river through to Salt Rock as a precautionary measure and will continue to do so until it is satisfied that both a government and UPL-consolidated report confirm that beaches are safe to reopen.

Desmond D’sa, head of the SDCEA said they did not trust a company which they believe must still be held responsible for the current environmental crisis. 

He said that in 25 years working in environmental justice that this was the worst chemical spill he had witnessed.

D’sa urged the crowd to take an active interest in the companies operating within their communities so that a repeat of this disaster could be avoided.

In a press release issued on July 31, UPL maintains it is not responsible for the outcomes of the fire on the grounds that no one could have anticipated such an event, which was the result of “extraordinary circumstances”.

The environmentalists however believe the chemicals could have been contained if UPL had had better storage and contingency plans in place for the event of an emergency.  

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