Chairperson, there are two words within the values of this department that must be emphasised as we move through this year and indeed through the next five years. Those two words are "maximised impact". I quote that from the values. Unless we maximise impact, we will fail in our constitutional duty to provide an environment that is not harmful to the health or the wellbeing of all South Africans.
My statement today has three focus areas. Firstly, I will speak on effective air quality management, which is addressed in the budget documents. However, over the next year the department strives to reduce the number of municipalities with air quality that does not meet the ambient air quality standards by 2 to 25. The aim for 2014 is that we should have 17 municipalities with air quality that does not meet the ambient air quality standards. Every resident of the 17 municipalities that will still be breathing polluted substandard air in 2014 will agree that this is not maximised impact. In September of this year, municipalities will have the power to implement the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act. Surely, with all relevant spheres involved in the quest for clean air, we can and must do better than this.
Secondly, in September 2006, this department's Health Care Risk Waste Steering Committee reported that South Africa's capacity to treat this waste, basically medical waste, fell 13 000 tons short of what was then being generated each year. On Monday this week the daily dispatch carried an article which sadly mirrors many similar articles we have seen over the years. It describes the discovery of two heaps of medical waste, including syringes and pill containers, dumped along a deserted road 400m from Bisho Hospital. The provincial spokesperson quoted in the article referred to the waste discovered as such a danger to human life. Yet, it is not receiving priority attention. The target for this year and next year is the development of health care risk waste regulations and policy and the costing of the roll-out thereof. It must go further than this. A thorough and due diligence audit must be carried out on every medical waste contractor. Sufficient permitted landfill sites that can accept treated medical waste must be available. The department must promote new technologies, moving away from landfilling and certainly away from incineration of medical waste. The green scorpions must crack down on anyone transgressing the law. Finally, waste electrical and electronic equipment, or simply e-waste, is both an emerging problem and a business opportunity of increasing significance. E-waste contains many toxic substances, including lead, mercury and arsenic. When e-waste is landfilled or recycled without any controls, there is a very high potential for serious negative consequences for the environment and for human health. E-waste also contains considerable quantities of valuable materials, including precious metals - gold being one of them. Recycling e-waste has the potential to provide attractive business opportunities. This has resulted in the dumping of the world's e-waste in China, India and West Africa for uncontrolled recycling by unscrupulous operators with often catastrophic consequences. As we speak, there is a container of this e-waste in the Durban Harbour. It has been shipped from America. An alert from the Basel Action Network has resulted in impoundment and investigation, but we must act now to prevent our country from becoming the next dumping ground.
South Africa's rate of e-waste generation is rapidly increasing. In 2004, it was estimated that in Gauteng alone approximately 50 000 tons of e-waste were generated. The Institute for Waste Management and concerned NGOs, such as the e-Waste Association of South Africa, have called for e-waste to be identified as a priority hazardous substance to be included in the priority list within the department's waste management business plan. No such support, unfortunately, is evident. The new waste Act provides the department with the opportunity to develop appropriate regulations and, of course, the capacity to implement the required controls. To turn a blind eye to this issue, is dangerous and certainly contrary to the stated aim of maximum impact.
The DA's vision of a society for its entire people resonates in its response to environmental management. We will continue our quest for an environment that is conducive to wellbeing and the creation of opportunity. [Time expired.] [Applause.]