(Photo: Mlungisi Mbele)
Faizel Patel – 19/08/2021
AmaBhungane Investigative journalist Susan Comrie says United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) has refused to disclose what chemicals were stored at its warehouse that was set alight during the deadly unrest and violence and caused a disaster affecting the wetlands and rivers and contaminated beaches.
Comrie was speaking to Radio Islam about that toxic fallout and amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism’s report on the disaster.
The fire started on the night of 12 July at the UPL warehouse in Cornubia on the North Coast which is right next door to a Makro store that was looted during the deadly unrest.
The fire was eventually extinguished on 22 July, by which point the chemically contaminated run-off from fighting the fire had reached the Ohlanga River, the Umhlanga lagoon and popular beaches north of Durban.
Comrie says it is alleged that the UPL warehouse apparently contained millions of chemicals and insecticides that were many times more that the warehouse could legally hold without environmental approval.
She says it may be possible that the toxic chemicals that were stored in the warehouse were vaporized as indicated by UPL in the initial explosion that blew the roof of the storage facility.
“Not certainly the kind of hope of the company, they’ve said very little. One of the things they have said is that they believe that a lot of the chemicals would have been vaporized when the kind of initial fire got going on the night of the 12th and early on the 13th. They’re not really providing much kind of backup for that statement.”
Comrie says there are many people within the Durban community who are trying to mobilize and bring attention to the disaster caused by the fire to the chemical warehouse.
“These are obviously people who kind of sat through those first ten days with these choking fumes and these strange side effects in some cases wondering what this was from. They’re only starting to get answers now because journalists have been able to dig-in and reveal what was in that warehouse.”
Comrie says AmaBhungane is continuing its investigation adding that there has not been any level of accountability or transparency by UPL about the chemical warehouse disaster.
Listen to the interview with Susan Comrie
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