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Health
and Environmental Impacts of Pulp and Paper Mills
Pulp and paper mills have been
causing untold problems in countries such as South Africa, Brazil, Sri
Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Swaziland and many others. If little or no environmental
controls are in place, pulp and paper mills can pollute water resources
and air quality. The pulp and paper process generates large quantities
of organic waste that deplete life-sustaining oxygen from rivers, and other
waters that receive mill effluent.
Organic waste discharged
into the Lusushwana River by the Swazi Paper Mills is threatening aquatic
life and down stream communities who depend on the river for domestic needs |
The use of chlorine by some
pulp and paper mills may result in potently toxic by-products, including
dioxin, and the use of sulphide results in foul-smelling and harmful air
emissions.
Pulp and paper mills produce
some staunch rotten eggs like smells from hydrogen sulphide gas |
Pulp and paper mills emit
hydrogen sulphide and other malodorous sulphur-containing pollutants that
can adversely affect human health. Hydrogen sulphide is toxic, foul smelling
compound. It has egg odour at low concentrations. However, at levels above
100ppm, it may not be noticed, |
because it numbs the sense of
smell. This characteristic of sulphide gas makes it extremely hazardous,
because exposure to levels above 100ppm can cause eye and throat injury,
and levels above 300ppm can be fatal. Communities around the Sappi Usuthu
Pulp and Paper Mill in Bhunya have been complaining of foul staunch smell
that comes from the mill.
Pulp and paper mills emit pollutants.
For example, the use of coal to heat boilers that provide energy to the
mill can result in high emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and others particles.
A solution to manage this could be by installing some type of flue gas
desulphurisation system to control emissions of SO2 from all coal furnaces.
Pulp mills that do not use
appropriate pollution control technology may discharge high levels of biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS). BOD is a measure
of the capacity of organic wastes to deplete dissolved oxygen in water.
The discharge of high levels of BOD can stimulate microorganisms in water
that deplete dissolved oxygen. Fish and other water living organisms are
at risk due to diminished levels of dissolved oxygen. The discharge of
high levels of TSS can interfere with a wide variety of biological processes
in an aquatic system. For example, the settling of TSS into a riverbed
can interfere with the biological quality of riverbed sediments.
Settling of TSS into a
riverbed of the Lusushwana River are interfering with the biological quality
of riverbed sediments |
By far, the most serious environmental
impact of pulp and paper mills results from their wastewater discharges.
Swazi Paper Mills has been labelled as a major polluter of the Lusushwana
River because of discharging paper fibre effluent and wastewater into the
river. The level of pollution and contamination in the Lusushwana River
has reached alarming levels and there have |
been calls by concerned and affected
communities to declare the Swazi Paper mills vicinity and surrounding areas,
including the Lusushwana downstream community areas as an area that needs
urgent attention and priority for environmental rehabilitation. Some community
members are even of the view that the area should be declared a national
disaster because of life threatening risk prevalent. Nokwane communities
draw water from the Lusushwana River, closer from where trucks from SPM
are dumping waste.
About 12-track loads from
SPM discharge waste daily at this dumpsite and this waste finds its way
into the nearby Lusushwana River |
A head teacher at Mthonjeni
Primary School, a few kilometres on the Lusushwana downstream has reported
widespread stomach ailments among students, although there has been no
fatalities at the moment. In addition, a nurse at Bethany clinic located
within the Lusushwana vicinity said that the industries |
around the Matsapha Industrial
Sites are responsible for illnesses in the Nhlambeni and Edwaleni area.
Her patients usually suffer from diarrhoea and abdominal pains as a result
of drinking polluted water from the Lusushwana River.
Small boys from the Nokwane
community holding a chunk of paper waste picked from the Lusushwana River |
Community members have blamed
several factories operating in the area, especially Swazi Paper Mills for
their ill health. The Swazi Paper Mill has always been prominently highlighted
in the media for dumping effluents directly into the Lushushwana River.
The river is increasingly becoming Swaziland’s own "dead sea," because
of high levels of life threatening effluent. |
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