Durban - The City of uMhlathuze says preventive and mitigation measures are in place to ensure that gas leaks are controlled in the Richards Bay area.
The municipality was commenting after the DA in the City of uMhlathuze said it was concerned about the investigation being conducted into a gas leak that affected 370 residents and pupils earlier this year in Richards Bay.
“It has been four months since the incident took place and yet the municipality has done little to nothing to engage with the affected residents,” said DA councillor Henning de Wet.
At time of the incident in February, some pupils at a school were hospitalised.
City of uMhlathuze spokesperson Bongani Gina said a preliminary report did serve before the council structures in March and, among others, it was recorded that a “joint government hierarchical investigation team comprising of all relevant sections will be conducting inspections during the first week of April to conclude their findings on the incident”.
“These inspections did take place during the week of 11 to 15 April and the final report on the findings is awaited.”
He said the investigation team consisted of qualified experts from the national Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, King Cetshwayo District Municipality, uMhlathuze Municipality and the KZN Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Department.
The intention was to:
∎ Assess the status of air quality within the uMhlathuze area.
∎ Set new goals to improve the quality of the air.
∎ Identify gaps and provide recommendations to strengthen the implementation of interventions.
∎ Define and quantify the baseline of ambient air quality, and set air quality objectives for the area.
∎ Develop interventions to improve ambient air quality in a cost-effective manner.
The municipality said in addition to the above, it had provided funding in its Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework budget (2022/2023) for the augmentation of air quality monitoring equipment.
The option of installing an additional air quality monitoring station as part of this process was being investigated.