Letter: Solutions must be safe - Business Day

The appeal by environmental groups against a decision to let Eskom bypass pollution rules at its Kusile power station in Mpumalanga sparked significant debate "Extra Kusile power station pollution may take R24bn toll", 6 July .

While concerns about potential environmental and health effects of increased emissions are valid, it is crucial to consider the broader context in which these decisions affect South Africans.

This is a tradeoff decision. The alternative to the temporary solution proposed by Eskom is not a pollution-free utopia, but a scenario with its own set of serious, if less headline-grabbing, health and environmental consequences.

If households are forced to use less electricity for heating and cooking, they will turn to other energy sources, including gas, paraffin and wood.

A 2021 SA Medical Journal article, "Paraffin dangers and health and socioeconomic consequences: Urgent need for policy action", notes that "energy-poor households spend a disproportionate amount of their income on energy procurement, are exposed to elevated levels of air pollution, and risk serious injury or death when using badly designed or defective appliances".

The article identifies "widespread failures of paraffin key stove safety components" as severe safety and health risk to especially poorer South Africans. The same article notes that paraffin is indicated equally "as the most common cause of accidental poisoning among hospitalised children in Nigeria" and that "paraffin emissions may impair lung function and increase susceptibility to infectious illness, including tuberculosis, asthma and cancer".

The health effect of indoor air pollution from wood or coal fires is of concern. From a 2020 study, "Exposure to Wood Smoke and Associated Health Effects in SubSaharan Africa: A Systematic Review": "Although studies on health effects of respirable particles have focused on those derived from fossil fuels, wood smoke particles are usually within the size range 0.022.5mm , said to be most damaging to human health. PM2.5 from wood smoke can penetrate into the deep lung, producing morphological and biochemical changes and resulting in a range of respiratory diseases. The inflammatory potential of particulate matter has been linked to chronic pulmonary diseases".

Moreover, an energy-starved economy cannot grow. The economic implications of this are far-reaching. Fewer jobs mean less income, which in turn means less tax revenue for social grants, health and education.

At the household level, less income means less nutrition and fewer resources to combat the life-shortening effect of poverty. While a transition to a diversified energy model with multiple sources and multiple suppliers in an affordability-driven and competitive market is worth pursuing we must acknowledge the complex realities of our situation.

Any such transition must be managed in a way that does not worsen existing social and economic challenges. SA must implement solutions that safeguard the wellbeing and livelihoods of our people. Only through sustainable socioeconomic upliftment can the necessary resources, living conditions and knowledge be created to ensure a just balance between economic and environmental concerns.

Hermann Pretorius

Institute of Race Relations