Just 30 miles from Johannesburg, in a South African region known as the Vaal Triangle, 1.7 million people are living in a crossfire of some of the most dangerous pollution on Earth.
A street vendor sells fruit near the Sasol plant in Sasolburg, part of the region known as the Vaal Triangle, in South Africa, on Jan. 18.
Vereeniging is relatively unknown outside of South Africa, but the country owes much of its status as the most industrialized nation on the continent to it. It was the site of the country’s first coal discovery in 1878, which helped magnates Sammy Marks and Hendrik van der Bijl establish one of South Africa’s most concentrated industrial areas.
The problem has been on the South African government’s radar for decades. In the mid-2000s, it designated the region as the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area, the first zone in which it would make a concerted effort to lower air pollution. Portia Mofokeng at her home in Mooidraai. Toxins from industrial emissions in the Vaal Triangle are causing respiratory diseases and hundreds of premature deaths every year across the region. Photographer: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg
That, she says, means there’s little community opposition to the pollution because “their brothers, their cousins work there. So what’s going to happen?” she said. ArcelorMittal said it has slashed particulate emissions by 87% since 2007 by suppressing dust and replacing old coal-burning equipment, while reducing other pollutants. Sasol said it has cut particulate emissions by 75% since 2000 largely by installing electrostatic precipitators — devices that attract dust to electrically charged plates.. The pollution is exacerbated by the fact that sulfur dioxide, emitted as a gas, often oxidizes with water vapor to form sulfuric acid particles.
Still, there’s little evidence of waste collection. Across the road from Sasol’s plant pigs and goats pick through rubbish dumped on the open ground adjacent to rows of small government-built brick houses and tin shacks. Bernard Mafata, a waste collector who drags a trolley between the informal dumps and recycling centers, says residents regularly burn refuse as it’s no longer cleared by the municipality.
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