IN 2019, scientists working for South Africa’s government completed a study on the health impacts of pollution from the country’s sprawling coal industry.
The researchers for the state-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research had been assured by government authorities that their years-long study would be published, according to three people familiar with the matter.
So far, it has not seen the light of day.
The study, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, showed more than 5,000 South Africans die annually in the nation’s coal belt because the government has failed to fully enforce its own air quality standards. It also revealed that nearly a quarter of households in the region, where 3.6 million people live, have children with persistent asthma. That’s double the national rate.
South Africa’s government has since 2015 granted waivers from emissions limits to its indebted state power and fuel companies, Eskom and Sasol,
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