The third edition of the Climate Justice Camp(CJC), which is in its final lap in Arusha, Tanzania, with a majority of thepopulation being youth representing over 90 countries globally, is targeted atsharing knowledge on environment, conservation and climate change.
A mix of culture that culminates intodiversity that implies lots of ideas and experience sharing.
Sharon Mbonani hails from eMbalenhle, Secunda,Mpumalanga in South Africa. She is one of the over 2,400 applicants for the2024, and is lucky to be among the hundreds of youth whose application wentthrough. She is a first-time climate justice camper.
Sharon’s focus is to gain more knowledge onjust energy transition. She is also learning more on air pollution. Her homevillage is surrounded with coal mines. Secunda, Mpumalanga, is known as thecoal leader in South Africa; it is host of numerous coal energy stations closetogether.
She is hopeful that by the end of theengagements, she will have more understanding to enlighten her community on theongoing air pollution menace and possibilities of how to navigate and evade thedare effects of coal on air.
She is bubbly and an eloquent story teller,but when she begins to tell Citizen Digital her story, her mood changes, withtears rolling down her cheeks, almost throughout the engagement.
The 28-year-old got into full timeenvironmental activism after losing her grandfather who raised her to adulthoodand her one-month-old son around the same time.
“My grandfather was diagnosed with Cancer; wedon’t have any cancer history in our lineage. I went to bed with a baby who hadnot shown any sign of sickness, I woke up with a lifeless body by my side; itis a really traumatizing experience,” she said.
“The doctors report said that my son's deathwas as a result of natural causes. I don't know how, he just woke up quiet, hejust died, I don't know how but when I did my research, children, the elderlyand pregnant women, are much affected by air pollution because of their weakimmunity. For women it causes infertility issues, still births, miscarriages;that even shocked me because I can't do anything about it.”
Sharon says she has had to give up custody ofher second born son to a faraway town in South Africa despite his tender age tosave his life and keep him healthy.
“You can't have a young person complaining ofhearing, we take it lightly that moment but when you look into it closely yourealize ten people around you have the same problem. It boosted my interest inwanting to know about what is happening,” she said.
“Some organization came with Greenpeace andthey taught us how to measure air impurities that we have in our community witha mobile air quality monitoring device. We are living in a community where wethink something is brought in to help us develop our communities and give usjobs, only to realize that these companies are there to just take the money andleave us messed up economically and healthwise.”
Cynthia Moyo, Greenpeace Africa climate andenergy campaigner in South Africa, says research has heavily linked coal airpollution to premature annual deaths, caused by respiratory illnesses such asbronchitis and asthma.
“The Major Air Polluters in Africa report ofMarch 2024 indicates that two of the world's largest sulphur dioxide (So2) emissionhotspots are found in South Africa, which speaks volumes of how much pollutionhappens in that area,” she says.
“Experts and environmental campaigners attestto have observed devastating consequences of coal air pollution on human lifeand the environment at large. Kids and adults are not affected in the same waybecause the immune system of the kids is vulnerable, that's why you will findthat kids in Secunda around those coal mines suffer frequently from bronchitisand asthma, that's why we always call for a phase out of fossil fuels becausethey are so devastating to the health of people leaving around those areas.”
She added: “At this point it must be knownthat our stance against the coal mining companies and these fossil fuel giantsis not just a resistance movement but it is a fight for our lives, ourenvironment and our health.”
According to IQAiR, an air quality monitorwebsite, as in many African countries, air pollution in Kenya is as a result ofburning fossil fuels for lighting and in vehicles for transportation, burninggarbage in the open, burning forests and fields and using indoor stoves.
In 2023, WHO estimated that approximately19,000 people die each year in Kenya due to air pollution, with UNEP citing 70%pollution in Nairobi.
The report also indicated that in Nairobi,Kenya’s capital, 9 out 10 people are exposed to air pollution beyond the globalhealth standards, and that the trend reduces life expectancy hence need forurgent action to have a healthy population.
A report of March 2024 dubbed ‘Major AirPolluters in Africa Unmasked’ by Greenpeace that investigated significant humansources of air pollution across Africa, focused on major industrial andeconomic sectors, including the fossil fuel industry.
The major finding of the report was that air pollutionis responsible for 6.7 million deaths in Africa every year.