Durban environmental groups have slammed a new bill that seeks to restrict all weather and air pollution warnings issued in South Africa.
The Weather Service Amendment Bill says only the South African Weather Service should issue warnings and anyone who sends out an alert without written approval from the Service could face fines of up to R10-million or 10 years in prison.
Local NGO Groundwork says environment officials have told them that the air pollution section of the bill was "mistakenly" inserted and will be removed.
The group's Rico Euripidou says however if the bill is passed in its current form, it will spell bad news for groups that warn communities when there is an air quality threat.
"It would have curtailed the freedom of environmental groups such as GroundWork or the South Durban Environmental Community Alliance to warn people within the community when we have a genuine concern about air pollution," he said.
He says they will also be lobbying against the proposed law.
"We're going to be making amended suggestions to the Department of Environmental Affairs, so hopefully we will manage to eliminate this provision within this bill, which is a very bad provision the way we read it."
- East Coast Radio
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