Cape Town - Citizens’ awareness of their environmental and human rights led to the Department of Environmental Affairs’ recent adoption of the Western Cape Air Quality Management Plan.
The plan places an emphasis on the management of air quality in the province, but also makes the link between air pollution and climate change and provides for actions to reduce greenhouse gases.
The department’s air quality management director Joy Leaner told members of the legislature’s standing committee on environmental affairs during a briefing, that the work done to monitor air quality in the province and the data collected in the process played a crucial role in the province’s long-term plans for a greener and sustainable environment.
Making the connection between the Covid-19 pandemic and air quality, Leaner told the committee that the hard lockdown boosted air quality across the province and the country as a whole, because as a result of cars being off the road, traffic emissions fell.
Committee chairperson Andricus van der Westhuizen (DA) and MPL Peter Marais (Freedom Front Plus) had asked the department for an assurance that crematoria in the province had the capacity to deal with the demand that came as a result of the pandemic
Leaner assured them that as the pandemic began the department realised that crematoria would become vital and so they worked very closely with the different licensing authorities in the province.
There are five crematoria in the province and the department is the licensing authority for the Maitland crematorium.
The other four are Durbanville Memorial Park licensed by the City, the Drakenstein crematorium and the Worcester Crematorium both licensed by the Cape Winelands Municipality and George Crematorium which falls under the Garden Route municipality.
