Our oceans are dying. Beset by pollution and demolition by industrial fishing, the magical and bountiful deep blue is turning into a barren desert. But in the next 72 hours, governments are considering a new rescue plan - and we can help push it through.

While you are enjoying a yoghurt snack from a plastic tub at home, there are a group of people embarking on an arduous cruise on our oceans to monitor how plasticly polluted it is.

You remember that we wrote the story of Mr Leslie Steenkamp who tried to rid his Plumstead house of borer-beetles, but instead ended up losing it due to an over-application of a pesticide CTX 108 by a fumigation company, Pestokil.

In the Cape Town suburb of Plumstead stands a house poisoned by the over-application of a pesticide by a fumigation company some 11 months ago.

A public meeting organised by The Air That I Breathe Foundation (TATIB) with the Stellenbosch city manager to discuss the issue of spray drift stalled this morning when planning, property and integrated human settlements director Basil Davidson, who deputised for the city manager at short notice, refused to proceed with the meeting until members of the media had left the room.

The use of toxic agricultural sprays ' even in towns - seems set to continue unabated in our country, in spite of urgent requests from citizens, neighbours and parents of children on farm schools, in spite of the health risks they pose to vulnerable farm workers, the ground water and biodiversity. In a letter by medical doctor Johan Minnaar from Groblersdal to Rapport newspaper, he lifts the veil on the ignorance which drives this industry.

A mother of a Stellenbosch student, who asked to remain anonymous, had noticed her daughter's ill health ever since studying at US (University of Stellenbosch). Eventually she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She lives in a house that borders the STIAS vineyard, which was originally planned to be an organic operation. This hasn't been the case though, as there have been many poisonous pesticides in use there. Even though this student has survived her cancer, she continues to experience various symptoms of ill health ' all of which can be linked to poison sensitivity.

Poisonous spays from farms drifting onto people, `workers, children, family and neighbours` is finally coming to a head in the Boland.