Namibian Mines minister Tom Alweendo has said that he sees no problem with drilling for oil and gas in one of Namibia’s sensitive and fertile land areas.
The Namibian in its recent
report said that Canadian company Recon Africa is planing to drill oil and gas
wells in an environmentally sensitive, protected area that supplies the
Okavango Delta with water.
The drilling location sits on the banks of the Okavango River in the newly
proclaimed Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.
“The article is written to cast doubt on how the government manages
environmental issues, Alweendo told The Namibian yesterday.
“It’s true the company has an oil and gas exploration licence and obtained an
environmental clearance certificate to do research drilling. They are not going
to do hydraulic fracturing (fracking) – a more invasive method – but a
conventional drilling method,” the minister said.
He said it’s not true that the drilling will be done in a conservancy area.
“I see no problem with it as long as the environmental people are happy with
the studies done,” he said. The mines ministry has for years earned a
reputation of disregarding environmental concerns and often pushed for the sake
of profits.
This includes the phosphate mining saga where environmental concerns were
seemingly ignored for a mining process that is deemed detrimental to Namibia’s
ocean.
Recon Africa’s exploration licences border three national parks upstream of the
Okavango Delta.
They also cover 11 separate community nature concession areas, one World
Heritage site and part of the five-country Kaza Park – the largest protected
area in southern Africa.
The drilling area also includes the last refuge of the San with a future drill
site near the World Heritage Site of Tsodilo Hills in Botswana. The United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) says the
site holds 4 500 rock paintings.
Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism has shared an
environmental impact assessment (EIA) that was done to cover the drilling of
three wells by Recon Africa, yet many members of the government, affected
communities and civil society are still in the dark about this development.
Chris Brown, chief executive officer of the Namibian Chamber of the Environment,
says he is not aware of the potential shale oil find.
“I have spoken to a number of people to ask if anyone in the mining sector here
had heard of this development and if anyone in the NGO sector had heard of it,
and it seems to be totally under the radar here in Namibia.”
Brown says any kind of project like this should have gone through environmental
review and permitting processes.
“There needs to be public consultation. We monitor all the adverts that come
out in the newspaper, and we monitor all the adverts that come out around EIAs,
and we haven’t picked this up at all,” Brown says.
