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human healthlatest news & developments
African countries, including South Africa, have limited waste infrastructure and uneven water treatment systems, which exacerbates the problem of antibiotic resistance. Photo: Sustainable Seas Trust
BIODEGRADABLE

Beyond the bin: Rethinking bioplastic waste for a circular future

Stellenbosch University has developed a process involving enzymes that can break down bioplastics

  • Dominique Rocher & Wessel Myburgh
6 min read
When there is mine waste near residential areas, communities in the vicinity are always negatively affected. Photo supplied
ACID MINE DRAINAGE

The hazardous legacy of Krugersdorp’s abandoned mines

Experts say the government must fund acid mine drainage clean-ups to protect the right of citizens to a healthy environment and clean water

  • Sheree Bega
8 min read
Greener drug design, rather than wastewater treatment, is crucial to combating the pharmaceutical pollution crisis. (Getty Images)
ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS

Scientists say pharmaceutical pollution is devastating wildlife

Greener drug design, rather than wastewater treatment, is crucial to combating the pharmaceutical pollution crisis

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Green but not good: Water hyacinth on Lake Victoria at Kichinjio Beach in Kisumu, Kenya, hamper fishermen’s efforts to make a living. In Lake Victoria, fisheries have declined from the depletion of tilapia caused by the spread of water hyacinth, the world’s most widespread terrestrial invasive alien species. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP)
FOOD SECURITY

Invasive alien species driving animal and plant extinctions

A major new report warns that invasive alien species wreaking havoc on nature and thus on nature’s contribution to people

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
On guard: A member of the Gariep Watch NGO tests sediment in the Orange River, along which grapes are farmed. Photos: Fritz Bekker & Hoberman Collection/Getty Images
DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION

Sewage pollution in the Northern Cape is killing the province’s lifeline – the Orange River

Criminal charges have been filed against the municipal managers of a number of towns for polluting the Vaal and Orange rivers

  • Sheree Bega
9 min read
(Mladen ANTONOV / AFP) (Photo by MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images)
CANCERS

Plastic waste is a planetary crisis

A United Nations meeting in Kenya is a step towards developing a legally binding global treaty that will decisively tackle plastic pollution

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
South Africa has ‘no real gumption’ when it comes to making tough decisions to protect the environment
ALBI MODISE

Environment department slammed for suspending regulations on trade in hazardous chemicals

South Africa has ‘no real gumption’ when it comes to making tough decisions to protect the environment, says UCT academic

  • Sheree Bega
4 min read
Relief: A man uses fans spraying air mixed with water vapour to cool down in a street in Iraq’s capital Baghdad during June’s severe heat wave. Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
ALS PARAMEDICS

South Africa unprepared for intense heatwaves of the next 20 years

Garrith Jamieson and his paramedic colleagues were on high alert days before a scorching heatwave struck Durban earlier this month. With the mercury expected to soar to 40°C and…

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
The minimum lifetime cost to South Africa of the plastic produced in 2019 is a staggering R885,34-billion. (Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)
BARBARA CREECY

Plastic pollution in 2019 cost South Africa staggering R885bn

Yet plans are underway to import more plastic waste into the country and it has not signed global plastics treaty

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read