Africa update
Published by MAC on 2007-09-06
Africa update
6th September 2007
ENVIRONMENT-ZAMBIA: Efforts to Halt the Strangulation of Kafue
By Newton Sibanda
LUSAKA, Aug 31 (IPS)
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international conservation organisation, has launched an initiative to protect Zambia's Kafue River from pollution: the 'Save the Kafue River Campaign'. At present, the river provides potable water to over 40 percent of people in the Southern African country.
Rising in the northern parts of Zambia, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the 960 kilometre Kafue is the longest river wholly contained within the borders of the country.
According to WWF Zambia co-ordinator James Phiri, the campaign will be used to inform people of the importance of the Kafue River to the country's development.
"Recognizing the value of freshwater and forest resources in Zambia and in the Kafue River Basin in particular, and (the) need to improve local livelihoods, WWF has directed several efforts and resources aimed at sustainably managing the natural resources and improving livelihoods of local people at different points along the Kafue River," he said.
There are several sources of pollution in the Kafue River Basin -- not least copper and cobalt mining near the source of the river.
Mining activities in the Copperbelt province in the north of the country provide almost 80 percent of Zambia's exports, but also produce vast amounts of tailings -- material discarded after minerals have been extracted -- that pollute the Kafue River and its tributaries.
"The biggest challenge on the Copperbelt is mitigation of impact on the Kafue River. There is a lot of pollution on this river," said Cyril Lukeke, environmental officer for Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH).
The Luanshya River, a tributary of the Kafubu River which in turn empties into the Kafue, is gradually being choked by mine tailings. However, the ZCCM-IH, as part of a corrective plan it is implementing through the government-run Copperbelt Environment Project, has been dredging the Luanshya River to conserve it.
Conditions are not very different near the town of Chingola, where the pressure of mining activities has resulted in the shrinking of the Mushishima River, another tributary of the Kafue. "Mushishima is dying downstream due to siltation. If we stop depositing solids the river will come back to life, because a river has a natural way of cleaning up," said Lukeke.
The Kafue Water Works in Chingola was forced to set up a floating pontoon that falls with the water level as siltation steadily makes the river shallower.
"When the plant was commissioned in 1975, the river was deep. In 1989, we changed to the flotation system because the pontoon follows the water level," explained production foreman Squeeze Sakala.
"The water level was about 10 metres, but now it is about five metres because of human activities in the catchment area upstream such as charcoal burning, mining and farming."
The water utility lost 43,000 dollars in billings last November when effluent from the Konkola Copper Mines in Chingola forced the plant to close down.
Accelerating deforestation in the Copperbelt province is also a serious threat to the Kafue River.
"Most forests on the Copperbelt are key river catchment areas. They protect major tributaries to the Kafue," said Newton Moyo, a WWF projects officer.
Earlier this year, population pressures forced the Zambian government to degazette 4,350 hectares of land in Chingola's Luano forest reserve. This means that forests will be cleared for the building of schools, clinics, a market and agricultural production.
In addition, a continuous discharge of raw sewage into the river from the Kafue Sewage Treatment Plant (KSTP) has seriously degraded the water quality of the river. The plant was designed to receive raw sewage from the nearby estates and from Kafue town itself, and then to process the sewage with a view to discharging purified water into the river.
However, the KSTP has not been effective in dealing with this task because proper maintenance has not been carried out there. Electrical faults have left several pumps non-operational; as a result, the plant is unable to manage the volume of sewage generated.
An earlier report from a non-governmental organisation, Advocacy for Environmental Restoration Zambia, says that crocodiles in the oxidation ponds have "threatened employees of KSTP and nearby farmers whenever they intend to do some work in the vicinity of the ponds."
The organisation also says that because the oxidation ponds are not properly looked after, they become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and so increase the risk of malaria. The ponds are used to treat sewage, this through the interaction of sunlight, bacteria and algae.
Pollutants in the effluent released into the river have benefited various types of weeds, including the water hyacinth -- or, as it is often dubbed, the "Kafue weed". The plant is choking up large segments of the river and is significantly changing the character of the Kafue flats further downstream. It is also threatening to limit the efficiency of the Itezhi-Tezhi and Kafue Gorge Dams. (END/2007)
For last week's related story on the Kabwe operations in Zambia's copperbelt see:
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1622.htm
MALAWI: Torn between the lure and danger of uranium
LILONGWE, (IRIN)
6th September 2007
A project to mine uranium in northern Malawi next year promises to spur economic development in the area, but fears of serious health hazards associated with the radioactive element have aroused the country's civil society.
The Malawian government granted a mining licence in April 2007 to Paladin Africa Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian company, Paladin Resources Ltd, to develop the Kayelekera uranium deposit, 40km west of the town of Karonga on the shore of Lake Malawi.
According to James Eggins, a spokesman for Paladin Resources, the US$200 million capital cost of the project could generate between $150 million and $180 million a year, depending on the price of uranium.
The project is expected to create up to 800 jobs during the construction phase and more than 200 permanent jobs in the operations phase, besides the employment of contractors.
The venture could become a top export earner for the Malawian government, which owns 15 percent of Paladin Africa Limited. Henry Chimunthu Banda, Malawi's Minister of Energy, Mines and Natural Resources, told parliament earlier this year that revenue from the project could boost the country's gross domestic product by 10 percent.
Health concerns
However, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), one of the leading rights organisations in Malawi, have called for an independent review of the environmental impact study, and are concerned about the possible social impact on neighbouring communities and exposure to radiation.
Kossam Munthali, director of the Foundation for Community Support Services (FCSS), a reproductive health support group also opposed to the mining project, told a public consultative meeting held last year by the Kayelekera Uranium Project that the effects of uranium might cause long-lasting serious health problems in unborn children and residents in the surrounding areas.
The deposit is close to a forest reserve and Lake Malawi, and the NGOs said it was important that the people of Karonga become aware of the impact that the mining project could have on the ecosystem of Africa's third-largest freshwater lake and the biodiversity of the entire area.
Lake Malawi, which the environmentalists claim would be affected once the mining project commenced, is also a source of fish, the country's most important and affordable protein.
"Uranium is naturally radioactive", according to Friends of the Earth, an anti-nuclear international NGO. "This means that as the element decays, it emits radiation".
As uranium decays, it produces a dangerous gas Radon-222 which easily spreads during the mining and the further processing of uranium, according to the NGO. " As well as being dangerous due to its radioactivity, uranium is chemically toxic".
The NGO maintained that no matter how uranium is mined, "there will be radioactive contamination of the environment as well as impacts from noise, dust, sulphur dioxide fumes, etc".
The amounts of radioactive waste that arises at every single process, presents an as yet unsolved problem, according to the Anti-Nuclear Working Group of the NGO. It quoted Dr. Katsumi Furitsu, a doctor who investigated the health effects of nuclear weapons as saying: "If Hiroshima and Nagasaki on one side and Chernobyl on the other side have their specificity there's nevertheless a great similarity in the health injuries caused by nuclear radiation".
The Uranium Information Centre (UIC) of the Australian Uranium Association, suggested that good ventilation systems be installed to keep exposure low. It also recommended the use of radiation-detecting equipment and regular safety checks
Environmental concerns
The Malawian NGOs called on Paladin to ensure that no waste would be dumped into natural waters, such as the Sere Stream and the Rukuru River, both near the deposit, which would lead to the pollution of Lake Malawi.
In particular, the NGOs warned of the dangers of mismanaging the mining operation's waste products, called tailings, which is the material left after the uranium has been extracted and contains most of the radioactivity.
Paladin's Eggins assured the NGOs that the company, which operates another mine in Namibia, would use the best design criteria for management of the tailings and any water used by the project.
The tailings would be compacted in dams, designed by experts in consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and ultimately covered and revegetated, he said. The company expected to draw from Australia's experience in managing tailings, as its uranium reserves were the world's largest, accounting for 24 percent of the global production, according to the UIC.
The CHRR, along with other NGOs, has complained that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) - a prerequisite for obtaining the mining permit - was procedurally incorrect and have lodged a case in the High Court in the capital, Lilongwe. Paladin has maintained that the EIA "was conducted in strict accordance with the law and to the highest international standards".
Changing attitudes
The IAEA, in its authoritative report on the future of uranium mining, Analysis of Uranium Supply to 2050, identified environmental and/or political opposition as the biggest obstacle to growth in the sector.
"Western uranium mining and processing in recent times has an exemplary safety and environmental record, and programmes in the developing countries continue to adopt stronger environmental standards. Nevertheless, the world's environmental community continues to dwell on past mistakes, and to emphasise those mistakes in resisting uranium project development," the IAEA commented.
As an example it cited the state of New Mexico in the USA, the country's leading uranium-producing state until 1983. An informal coalition of environmental groups and Native American activists had reversed what was once a pro-mining attitude, and New Mexico now had a strongly anti-uranium mining philosophy.
Interest in uranium has been growing in tandem with rising concerns about climate change, prompting many countries to reconsider the greener option of using nuclear power to produce electricity, which meant more nuclear plants would be built, Eggins pointed out.
The uranium market has been experiencing a strong revival, and new mines would be required in the coming years to meet the demand for growing uranium consumption by nuclear power utilities throughout the world. Paladin said the uranium spot price rose to its highest levels in the history of the civil nuclear industry in June this year.
Based on geological evidence, the IAEA has estimated that more than 35 million tonnes of uranium are available for exploitation. By 2025, the world's annual uranium requirements are expected to reach between 80,000 tonnes and 100,000 tonnes.
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