a poisonous deadly wind

(next to my town)

A fellow steemian was writing about the "August winds" in his region. I am also located in West Gauteng area near to where he farms, in a town called Krugersdorp. I relocated up to the South African Highveld almost 20 years ago.

(pretty dam near my house, but in winter when very dry)

I had previously spent my life in East London, a coastal city with beautiful mild weather. In East London you do get wind from the sea. The weather can change fairly quickly and one can generally expect some wind in the afternoon. You learn to go to the beach in the mornings if you want to avoid wind.

East London used to feature quite prominently in the automotive industry but nearly all those industries relocated to Port Elizabeth. The resultant lack of industry in East London means that the air is quite clean, something that I took for granted while growing up.

However when I moved inland to the industrial heartland of South Africa, I found a massive change in the air quality. SMOG.

It is clearly evident if you fly into Johannesburg and land at OR Tambo airport in either early morning or late afternoon. The thick brown haze that the aircraft descends into is something you must see to believe. The biggest impact on the air environment in winter is caused by the coal that is burnt to keep families warm in their homes. Most of the poorer communities use fire rather than expensive electricity.

Now the primary industry in Gauteng was the mining industry. Huge mine dumps are all over the place. These are toxic and open to the air. When the wind blows in these areas, the toxic dust is blown into the air that is breathed by their local inhabitants. I personally find that painful sores develop inside my nose during the dry winter months.

At a stage I was an active golf player and used to go play at the nearby Randfontein golf course. There was a stage of playing when I developed difficulty breathing. I went to my doctor and I was diagnosed as being asthmatic! I had to get a ventalin pump. Right next to the golf course is a huge mine dump. Towards the end of winter the winds start to blow in earnest. Generally there is very little wind up here, except for the "windy season". There is no rain and everything is deadly dry. A dirty yellow haze filled the air when you walked the course playing golf.

This is another legacy of apartheid; the mining industry's pollution of the land. Huge dumps of toxic materials. When the gold is gone, the mines close down, leaving mountains of poisonous sand and huge reservoirs of poisonous water which seeps into the watertable. Usually townships grew next to the mines where the poor black people hope to get "a job". Now the townships are still there but the work is gone.

(poor kids have not the faintest idea of how poisonous)

To clean up the mess of the "disappeared" mining companies will run into many billions of rands. The money has been funnelled into overseas corporates. The toxic waste land remains behind with a terrific impact on the local inhabitants. Nothing new here, I think all developing countries have been scarred by rapacious corporates of the industrialized nations of the Western world in particular. In those days it was big profits and no environmental responsibility. The old white governments were quite happy to get the tax monies and did not seem to worry too much about the countryside.

(typical scene that can be found all over the Gauteng)

My eldest daughter, who has qualified as a medical doctor, would have loved to do research into how much higher cancer is in communities nearer to the mine dumps as compared to the rest of the country.

So yes the winds are here and the air is full of crap, poisonous crap.

To my mind the best thing to do is stay inside when the wind blows. I hope it makes a difference to preserving my health.

But what about the impact on those who can't stay inside and avoid the winds?