Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa.
E-mail: ntui2000@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract: The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in 2002 laid down principles for implementation of integrated environmental management and sustainable development as a millennium goal, through corporate, public and community partnerships. Imbedded in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are poverty alleviation, unemployment, education, sustainability through environmental sustainability accounting and reporting, availability of information. In this context, a study was initiated among coal mining communities of the South African Highveld. The study was based on the use of questionnaires, comments and interviews, assessed levels of awareness of coal-mining related hazards, changing practices and perceptions in the low income communities surrounding the mines (and the homes of many of the mine labourers). This paper presents results of an assessment, undertaken in the eMalahleni Local Municipality (Witbank), of community vulnerability to coal mining related hazards as a factor of perception. Results obtained shows social hazards associated with coal mining and domestic usage of coal. Many factors were considered such as poverty, illiteracy and absence of environmental education programmes to inform and educate the communities. These factors were associated with perceptions of an unwillingness of the local Municipality and the mining companies to provide environmental and health information on coal use to communities. Such absence of environmental sustainability accounting and perceptions cumulatively increase the vulnerability of such communities to coal-related physical and social hazards in various forms.
Keywords: coal mining, social hazard, community vulnerability, environmental perception, environmental sustainability accounting, South Africa, Corporate Social Responsibility.
I. INTRODUCTION
Coal mining and processing remain one of those primary activities with severe environmental consequences, from scoping to actual production phases.
This is not limited to any specific coal mining practice or any specific country. Coal mining is both a labour and capital intensive activity - this implies that is a magnet to attract labour, skilled and unskilled. It is also a potential source of enforced informal settlement, for the lowest income bracket of mine-workers, and the inevitable informal traders and service providers. that are attracted to mining settlements. Such informal settlements lack
basic amenities, accentuated by poverty, illiteracy and lack of environmental information. Coal-burning in such communities remains the lowest cost and affordable means of energy provision.
The production of coal as a low cost energy for development in developed and developing countries are associated with social and economic gains. These gains are not without associated hazards. Hazard is defined as any activity or action that has a potential to cause harm [4]. Hazards are classified as physical and social.
Physical hazards consist of direct impacts to landscape, such as coal dust, vibration, explosion, spontaneous combustion [1]. Social hazards are secondary and indirect impacts from the physical processes. These include impact on physical health, dilution of cultures, prostitution, retrenchment of workers, impact on agricultural lands and agric-economic cycle, forced migration and other social decay. The fact that social impacts are often gradual, results in little concern being expressed to mitigate such risk. Initially, this research was intended to assess communities, municipality and companies on the state of environmental management and prevailing social hazards in communities. From the inception, companies declined participation based on the sensitivity of the research, while municipalities drop out, claiming there was insufficient political exposure. Many factors were considered in examining, reasons for the bypass of social hazards on individuals and communities.
This research was conducted in the province of Mpumalanga in South Africa. Mpumalanga is South Africa’s premier province for coal production and processing. Located within the province are numerous clusters of informal settlements around active and abandoned coal mining sites, with insufficient amenities and social decay. Although the World Coal Institute (WCI), World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and Minerals and Petroleum Resource Development Act (MPRDA) call for sustainable mining communities [3], there is insufficient evidence to term any of such settlements as sustainable mining communities.
II. DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH AREA
Historically, until the advent of the new South Africa in 1994, there were four provinces: Kwa-Zulu Natal, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Cape. After the
advent of democracy, South Africa was divided into nine provinces, with the former eastern Transvaal becoming a province of its own, known as Mpumalanga (Figure 1).
Mpumalanga is located within 25o–27oS and 29o–32oE covering a range between 1200-1800 m above sea level.
Mpumalanga includes the Highveld coal fields centered on Witbank [3].
FIGURE 1. LINKED MAP SHOWING RESEARCH AREA, FROM NATION, PROVINCIAL TO MUNICIPAL.
This research was conducted on a number of formal and informal settlements within the eMalahlani Municipality (formally the town of Witbank). Settlements covered include Clewer, Kwaqwaqa, Extension 1-10, Zone 1-4, Vosman, Ackerville, Lynville and a portion of Witbank (Figure 2).
III. METHODS
The following data collection techniques were used;
questionnaires, comments, interviews, focus group discussion, personal observations and photographic shoots taken on field works. A number of issues were assessed from individual to communities. Aspects assessed include environmental awareness, environmental education, environmental information and transfer, opinions, changes in perceptions and practices.
In total 19 items were identified, spread over four broad headings of Health and Safety, Disaster Preparedness and Awareness Responses, Strategic Environmental Management and Environmental Legal Application and Compliance. The four broad heading were placed under individual and community environmental awareness, mitigation measures, managerial decisions and policy tools.
FIGURE 2.CADASTRAL MAP SHOWING RESIDENTIAL AREAS AND PROXIMITY TO MINING SITES.
Questionnaire data. Questionnaires are the main instrument for data gathering in this research.
Questionnaires were administered to schools and
communities, using certain selection criteria to refine acceptability of completed forms. To qualify, the respondent should have lived within a community
uninterrupted for at least three years, and a minimum age restriction of at least 16 years was applied. In schools, only senior learners in grades 10 and 11 were invited to participate. Grades 12 were exempted so as not to interrupt examination preparations. On the top of each questionnaire form, personal details were required. Questionnaire forms made provision for individual voluntary comments.
Questions were structured as level-one and level-two questions. Level-one questions required a tick response selected from four options: YES, NO, SOMETIMES, OTHERS - representing yes for certainty, no for certainty, sometimes for uncertainty, and other for no idea at all. Level-two questions allowed for a broader response, requiring a short phrase response. It was intended to assess opinions and perceptions. Abstainers were also factored as perception. There were four separate questionnaires, dealing with four separate topics: Health and Safety;
Disaster Preparedness and Awareness; Strategic Environmental Management; and Environmental Legal Application and Compliance. Respondents were invited to participate only to one specific questionnaire. Overall, a total of 6 620 acceptable questionnaires were obtained from community participation, shared among the four topics as shown in Table 1.
Comments. Individual voluntary comments were accepted. Each questionnaire form had a voluntary comment opportunity at the bottom. There was no restriction or limitation on the scope for comments.
No comment was rejected on the bases of scope or thought. Comments were broadly based, covering mostly areas not identified by structured questions.
A sum of 638 comments was obtained from community participation (Table 1).
Table.1: Overall responses by category from validated questionnaires and comments, used as input for the statistical analysis
Interviews. Interviews were conducted on a strict selective principle. Only persons of influence and elders of communities were interviewed. The following personalities were interviewed: Mayor of Municipality (eMalahlani Municipality); Speaker of Municipality; Councilor of Ward 9; project co-coordinator of Basa njengo Magogo (an environmental training programme then current in
the same area); a community elder; and the project translator. Only the Speaker of municipality was available to be interviewed twice, once on the occasion of the inauguration (installation) of an air quality monitoring station, and in his office after a plenary session of councilors. Interviews were conducted on structured questionnaires and some interactive questions.
Plenary session (focus group). A plenary session of councilors, chaired by the speaker of the Municipality was held. The plenary was attended by 12 of 40 councilors, excluding the high table. The plenary was intended to conduct a discussion debate on mining environment and community social status.
The session went well - a presentation was given, followed by a question and answer session.
Photographic and visual observation.
Photographic shots and observational notes of environmental features and hazards were taken during field trips. These photographs were taken as illustrative evidence of the state of community affairs and the environment.
IV. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
A simple analytical technique was used. Data collected were placed on an Excel spread sheet under the following category of yes, no, sometimes, others and abstainers. In most cases looking at the complexity and range of responses, level-two questionnaire inputs were attached on separate tables. A simplified computer graphic representation was plotted from the Excel spread sheet. Two graphic representations i.e. bar graphs and pie charts were used to illustrate data obtained. The graphic representation was further given percentage scaling.
Data were analysed as follows:
Questionnaire. Analysis was done per section and per item. For interest of this paper, analysis is done per section.
Health and Safety. Five aspects were identified namely: Dust exposure, Noise and vibration, Temperature and heat exposure, Various gases,Health and hazards.
Disaster Preparedness and Awareness Responses. Four aspects were identified namely:
Coal fires, Explosives, Air monitoring, and Underground surveillance.
Strategic Environmental Management. Five aspects were identified: Environmental hazards and planning, Environmental research on hazards, Equipment on hazard management, Monitoring and control systems on hazards and Improve risk and awareness practices.
Environmental Legal Application and Compliance. Five aspects identified were Environmental legislations on hazard, National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), Environment Conservation Act, Minerals Act 36 of
1991, and Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).
Health and Safety analysis. From the general performance, it is clear that individuals and communities are aware of the various health hazards such as heat, dust and air quality, noise and vibration. They are not aware of any form of education on the identified hazards. There are no communications or available information from companies or the municipality on these health hazards. Individuals and communities are interested to know how companies manage the various hazards.
Disaster Preparedness and Awareness Responses. General questionnaire performances show the following: Individuals are aware of some existing and potential hazards in the communities.
Most of the named hazards were physical and a few of social hazards. Individuals and communities have no mitigation measures to the identified named hazards. There is no information available. There is no education either formal or informal. There is a lack of communication between communities, companies and municipality. There is an outspoken willingness to learn about various social hazards in communities, and of company’s measures to mitigate them.
Strategic Environmental Management. This questionnaire was intended to assess companies and municipality performance on environmental decisions and steps in community environmental management. Individuals and communities were assessed to find out levels of awareness in company and municipality policies and practices in community environmental status. General community output provided the following indicators:
Individuals and communities are not aware of environmental decisions in communities. There are no information, education and communication between companies, municipality and communities on issues of environmental management. There is a strongly expressed desire to know company and municipal policies on community environmental and social issues.
Environmental Legal Application and Compliance. Intended to assess individual and community knowledge on environmental legislation, its application by companies, and enforcement by municipality on companies. Overall performance read as follows: Individuals are able to identify a few items of environmental legislation, though generally they are not very knowledgeable with the scope of the (new) environmental legislation. They are not aware of its application and the MPRDA transformation of mining communities. There is no information, education and communication between companies and municipality on the one hand, and communities on the other on environmental matters.
Communities are not aware of and had never participated in the public participation processes that
are a legal requirement under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), specifically with respect to application of environmental legislation to companies in relation to licensing, expansion or new capital developments.
There is an overwhelming willingness to know in what way environmental legislation is applicable to communities.
Comments. A total 638 comments were obtained in the process of administering questionnaires (Table 1). Comments inputs were broken down and categorized into seven headings, namely: causes of harm; causes of illness; for example asthma, TB;
education on risk; company or municipality negligence; other issues not covered; and lack of information. In the course of categorizing comments, the following statements were most commonly used:
Help educate or inform us of the hazards.
I am interested to know more about hazards.
Companies should relocate away from communities.
Companies are interested in jobs and neglecting other issues.
No information what so ever.
Mining should benefit all stakeholders and such good relations should exist
Companies should take responsibilities for their actions.
Companies always forget their social responsibilities.
Companies should provide the means and information.
Government must force companies, they just do what they want.
Smoke from mines pollute and contaminates.
Councilors did not inform us.
Access to information that concerns the Minerals Act is not applicable in communities.
In analyzing the comments, two aspects were most commonly used: (i) lack of education on risk of hazards; and (ii) lack of available information. These two aspects commonly were identified as a major cause of other weaknesses. For example, poor identification of what constitutes a hazard and what are managerial policies and tools. Another weakness was company and municipality negligence to communities. This raised issues not covered in structured questionnaires.
V. RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION. After analyzing the various data and other evidence obtained from communities, various arguments were put across. Many thoughts and questions were asked. Why did companies decline participation from the onset of this research, if they are regular with environmental requirements as deemed by WSSD, WCI, and various South African legislations? Why did municipality pull out from effective participation? Why did the intended rescheduled plenary session of councilors never take place? Why is there an absent in public participation during the EIA processes?
The overall results show that individuals and communities are aware of some hazards, mostly the
physical, by intuitive knowledge acquired by longevity of exposure. There are sufficient facts that education and information on environmental impacts are absent. Public participation and awareness, a form of environmental education during impact assessment process is also absent. Although individuals are willing and interested to know about hazards that surround them, companies and municipality are passive about the communities in this regard. This evasive attitude by companies and municipality revolves around power, perception, opinion and environmental politics.
Perception and opinions on environmental management varies within categories of people and professionals. Environmental perception and opinion includes personal and collective behaviour and thoughts towards the environment by various groups.
The various groups include environmental field practitioners, those working in companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), environmental activists, environmental legal practitioners, municipal officers, ward councilors and community dwellers.
The hierarchical arrangement of the various group of people interested in the environment, shows the level of environmental awareness, environmental influence and manipulating capacity in a descending order. The level of environmental awareness is high within field practitioners working in companies, especially those working in mining companies. This also determines their influences. They determine what is researchable or not in a mining company and the mining environment. They also determine what information can be released or withheld as considered confidential. Evidence is drawn from this academic research, where mining companies operating in the area of study declined effective participation (despite formal introductions from long time academic consultants to the same companies and individuals). Environmental researchers in this regard are seen as witch hunters.
A similar trend flowed through the municipal officers, ward councilors and community dwellers.
Senior municipal officers, for example, the mayor, speakers and secretary at the mayor’s office are aware of the state of environmental affairs. They are further aware of the various legislations and responsibilities. They however down played the legislation and associated responsibilities. Evidence is drawn from the focus group or plenary session of councilors and interviews conducted with the mayor and speaker. Both high level civil servants are aware of their environmental responsibilities. Councilors reversed the session - instead of responding to structured questions from the researcher, they were posing questions to him. An implication is that they are not aware of environmental reporting in their wards. The interviews also show that both the mayor and speaker made reference to an environmental
committee, with associated committee portfolio documents. The environmental committee minutes and environmental portfolio were never made available, possibly implying that not all of these documents existed.
Communities are the least aware and informed group of people on environmental management. The last question in most of the questionnaire forms read as follows: Are you willing/ interested to know about environmental hazards in your community? The responses to such questions have been more than 70% willingness. There is also sufficient evidence from questionnaire responses and categorized comments, that there is a lack of environmental education, information and communication. This lack placed communities in a more vulnerable position with respect to adverse environmental social conditions. Those in power and position of influence e.g. company’s environmental practitioners, view environmental hazards from a social dimension differently. So long as it does not impact on production directly and immediately, then there is no impact. Municipal officers regard themselves as accountable to communities only on service delivery.
They had poor or absent realization that services are delivered in a good living environment. Thus, a good environment is a requirement for good services. This is attributed to various factors: (i) there are few environmental practitioners and inspectors to supervise and enforce environmental legislation in South Africa; (ii) environment legislation (green laws) are new in application; (iii) other legislation counteracts the green legislation; (iv) green legislation does not generate sufficient remuneration to legal experts; (v) legal experts are not very certain of green legislation and of State enforcement capabilities and punitive measures; and (vi) there are no specific courts for environmental defaults and claims. All of the above comprise a cycle of environmental perception, which in turn impacts on environmental practices.
VI. CONCLUSION
Assessing from the various data collected through questionnaires, comments, interviews, plenary session of councilors, personal observation, and photographic shoots taken, the followings were concluded. Environmental management is still a concept. There is no hope for a sustainable mining community in the immediate future. Mining communities lack basic requirements of a good environmental practice, like education on mining risks, available information on mining practices and
Assessing from the various data collected through questionnaires, comments, interviews, plenary session of councilors, personal observation, and photographic shoots taken, the followings were concluded. Environmental management is still a concept. There is no hope for a sustainable mining community in the immediate future. Mining communities lack basic requirements of a good environmental practice, like education on mining risks, available information on mining practices and