South Africa’s coal belt produces more than half of the country’s electricity, but people who live in the shadow of the power stations and mines suffer from a range of health issues linked to pollution from these facilities.Despite being declared a priority area for tackling air pollution nearly 20 years ago, residents and campaigners here say little has improved.Research by the South African Medical Research Council linked pollutants like PM 10 and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) to increased mortality risk, sinus problems, tuberculosis, asthma and other lung and respiratory issues among residents of the Highveld Priority Area, named for its high altitude.Activists are taking legal action to compel the government and industrial players to improve emission standards, enforce them fully and to do away with exemptions.
eMALAHLENI, South Africa — Elisabeth Moutloang, 49, lives in the shadows of Duvha Power Station, a 3,600-MW coal-fired power station owned and operated by Eskom, South Africa’s national energy provider. Between it and her community of Masakhane, in the south of eMalahleni, is a coal mine where she used to work twenty years ago as a weighbridge clerk, monitoring the weight of coal-laden vehicles entering and exiting the mine, before it was abandoned.
