Gauteng residents’ health will continue to be at risk due to the Gauteng Department of Environment’s lack of budget for maintenance and management of the eight monitoring stations, which do not operate properly. This is yet another area where Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government has failed the residents of this province. Without proper air monitoring in place, residents are at risk of developing breathing issues and other health problems. Currently, only 13 out of 31 (42%) Air Quality monitoring stations are fully operational.
This startling information was revealed in a reply to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to the MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha. He further revealed that all municipalities in the province failed to meet the National Ambient Air Quality standards for particulate matter in the last five financial years. Therefore, municipalities are unable to monitor and measure air pollution and curb it from spiraling out of control.
See the reply here.
To fix the eight monitoring stations that are not functioning properly in the province, a budget of between R500 000.00 and R800 000.00 per quarter per station is needed. An estimated budget of R4 000 000,00 and R6 400 000,00 is required for maintenance per quarter.
These stations are producing raw, unprocessed data that offers little meaningful protection to communities. A staggering 10 stations remain completely non-operational, with some lying dormant since 2015. This means that for nearly a decade, vast swathes of Gauteng have not been monitored, leaving residents unknowingly exposed to potentially lethal air pollution levels.
Without functioning monitoring networks, authorities cannot issue timely health warnings, assess compliance with air quality standards, or take urgent action when pollution reaches dangerous levels.
The National Environmental Air Quality Act obligates the government to ensure that South Africans breathe air that is not harmful to their health and well-being. The department is not merely failing to meet these obligations; it is flouting the law.
Municipalities must receive adequate funding to maintain, repair, and replace their air quality monitoring stations. To merely shift this responsibility to municipalities themselves is reckless.
The DA will not sit idly by while this matter is not receiving the necessary attention. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually. In South Africa, UNICEF has reported that 3,365 children under five years died because of air related causes in 2021, with 80% of these deaths occurring within 28 days of birth. This is a travesty that the DA Gauteng will not accept being ignored by those in power.
Following the DA Gauteng’s questions regarding the state of air quality and monitoring in Gauteng, a workshop was held during the Agriculture and Environment Portfolio Committee, at which all municipalities presented the status of their air quality monitoring stations. The DA Gauteng is engaging with the MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha, on an ongoing basis to find a solution to the current situation. We will also engage the Minister of Environment, Dion George on setting a standard on this issue in Gauteng and across the country.
A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would ensure that monitoring stations across Gauteng are restored to full operational status within 90 days. Emergency health protocols would be established for areas without operational monitoring stations, and senior officials would be held personally accountable for this scandalous failure in public health protection. The Departments of Environment and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) would work together to support municipalities and hold them accountable, so that every community across Gauteng can breathe easier and live with dignity.