Stampriet uranium project ‘must be stopped’
The Kalahari community has “a huge problem” with the prospect of in-situ uranium leaching that is likely to lead to high concentrations of uranium and other heavy metals in its drinking water.
FRANK STEFFEN
STAMPRIET
A mining project by Headline Investments that aims to mine uranium by way of in-situ leaching hangs heavy over the communal and farming communities of the Stampriet-Leonardville-Aranos area.
Attendees of a meeting coordinated between the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) and the Stampriet Farmers Association voiced serious concerns about “a mining project that has already been allowed to advance way too far, considering the serious repercussions it will have on the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System (STAS),” as Dr Roy Miller put it.
Within Namibia, the subterranean water basin is better known as Stampriet Artesian Basin (SAB).
Miller presented a presentation on the serious impact the process of leaching for uranium would have on the water quality and usefulness of the unique interconnected aquifer-system of the Kalahari Basin.
The initial presentation at Leonardville has, in the meantime, been updated substantially and the internationally acknowledged geologist painted a bleak picture should the local mining subsidiary - that has been registered by the Kazakhstani branch of the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom - be allowed to put up a pilot plant for the actual production of uranium in this area.
Nuclear radiation
“We are not talking of Kazakhstan, where these plants have been put up in an area that has no other use for its high-saline-content water,” Dr Miller said.
He explained in detail how the various aquifers of the Kalahari Basin developed over millions of years and how uranium deposits came about in this highly porous sandstone.
It is the permeability of the sandstone, combined with the numerous interconnections of the considerable number of aquifers that combine into a subterranean water network spanning Namibia’s Southern Kalahari and extending into eastern neighbour Botswana - roughly following the age-old water flow that is today still defined by the Auob and Nossob rivers on the surface, that have Miller worried.
“Close to 91% of the aquifers and underground waterways lie south of the now known uranium finds and the Japanese conducted and published a study that shows a tremendously strong flow of this water current. They pumped 45 000 litres per hour of water for three years without the water table ever dropping below a depth of 2.8 metres.
No consultations
He has presented this case to the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Calle Schlettwein, who seems very concerned. So much so that he has put up a committee to investigate the project.
Farmers were flabbergasted by the fact that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project had been approved in the first place, considering that no public consultations had taken place.
They have now urged the NAU to inform them and the public about land owners’ rights when mining companies explore for minerals.
Farmers are principally in agreement that they need to act urgently, not only to save themselves, but the communities at large.
Danie Kotze of Aranos proposed: “We need a proper plan and strategy that points out exactly who will be negatively affected by this apparent threat. We need numbers in terms of people and communities, settlements and town as well as lodges, guest farms and hunting farms. We all employ people and have a lot to lose. Unlike Headline, we are certainly part of a sustainable solution and that needs to be considered.”
STAMPRIET
A mining project by Headline Investments that aims to mine uranium by way of in-situ leaching hangs heavy over the communal and farming communities of the Stampriet-Leonardville-Aranos area.
Attendees of a meeting coordinated between the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) and the Stampriet Farmers Association voiced serious concerns about “a mining project that has already been allowed to advance way too far, considering the serious repercussions it will have on the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System (STAS),” as Dr Roy Miller put it.
Within Namibia, the subterranean water basin is better known as Stampriet Artesian Basin (SAB).
Miller presented a presentation on the serious impact the process of leaching for uranium would have on the water quality and usefulness of the unique interconnected aquifer-system of the Kalahari Basin.
The initial presentation at Leonardville has, in the meantime, been updated substantially and the internationally acknowledged geologist painted a bleak picture should the local mining subsidiary - that has been registered by the Kazakhstani branch of the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom - be allowed to put up a pilot plant for the actual production of uranium in this area.
Nuclear radiation
“We are not talking of Kazakhstan, where these plants have been put up in an area that has no other use for its high-saline-content water,” Dr Miller said.
He explained in detail how the various aquifers of the Kalahari Basin developed over millions of years and how uranium deposits came about in this highly porous sandstone.
It is the permeability of the sandstone, combined with the numerous interconnections of the considerable number of aquifers that combine into a subterranean water network spanning Namibia’s Southern Kalahari and extending into eastern neighbour Botswana - roughly following the age-old water flow that is today still defined by the Auob and Nossob rivers on the surface, that have Miller worried.
“Close to 91% of the aquifers and underground waterways lie south of the now known uranium finds and the Japanese conducted and published a study that shows a tremendously strong flow of this water current. They pumped 45 000 litres per hour of water for three years without the water table ever dropping below a depth of 2.8 metres.
No consultations
He has presented this case to the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Calle Schlettwein, who seems very concerned. So much so that he has put up a committee to investigate the project.
Farmers were flabbergasted by the fact that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project had been approved in the first place, considering that no public consultations had taken place.
They have now urged the NAU to inform them and the public about land owners’ rights when mining companies explore for minerals.
Farmers are principally in agreement that they need to act urgently, not only to save themselves, but the communities at large.
Danie Kotze of Aranos proposed: “We need a proper plan and strategy that points out exactly who will be negatively affected by this apparent threat. We need numbers in terms of people and communities, settlements and town as well as lodges, guest farms and hunting farms. We all employ people and have a lot to lose. Unlike Headline, we are certainly part of a sustainable solution and that needs to be considered.”
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