Department refuses to respond to fracas over ‘nonsense’ fracking regulations

Government has refused to respond to the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environmental Institute’s (Safcei) criticism of the new proposed amendments to fracking regulations as “not new, nonsense, contradictory and useless”.

Apart from few exceptions, the institute has lamented that the amendments, published last month for public comment, stated what was already in the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) and other legislation. 

“Some of the clauses in the ‘new’ regulations are outright nonsense and expose the absence of geotechnical or hydrogeological input. The amended regulations try to appear tough and caring, but rather give a false sense of security and try to paint the department as being strict, when it actually is not,” Dr Stefan Cramer, the institute’s science advisor, said.

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Regulations will lead to legal challenges

He said in several places the proposed amendments were contradictory in themselves and will ultimately lead to legal challenges instead of clarity.

Cramer, a retired hydrogeologist from Germany, said it was clear from environment, forestry and fisheries minister Barbara Creecy’s proposed amendments that there was lack of quality inputs from the highly qualified South African groundwater science community. 

He said the new regulations were required to give investors a clear path of the legal framework under which they could operate in the country’s onshore environment.

Risk to water resources

According to Cramer, the amendments were also required to give SA’s competing water users a clear signal that their overriding concerns for clean and affordable drinking water were heard by government.

“But these ‘new’ regulations solve neither of these two competing interests, while offering no protection at all to private water facilities,” he charged.

Cramer said one central issue was the ambiguity in the regulation of potable water, saying first there was the risk of potentially wide-ranging prohibition, which, since it was not defined in any legal way, will be open to abuse and misrepresentation.

“Then there are certain phrases which just do not make sense, thereby exposing the poor technical input into these regulations,” he said.

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The Eco-justice organisation’s community outreach coordinator Neville van Rooy said South Africa is water scarce and that communities in the Karoo Basin particularly, with its very low annual rainfall and limited perennial rivers, depend heavily on groundwater.

He said they were still recovering from the recent unprecedented drought and that the risk of contamination of the available groundwater is enormous, and could spell dire consequences for affected communities while big corporate companies grow richer.

“It is not fair to expect the people of the Karoo to share our scarce water reserves with an industry like fracking, a water intensive activity that involves a lot of toxic chemicals. And with climate change, we predict that the Karoo will become even more water stressed. Water is life and whoever wants to jeopardise our livelihoods for fracking, cannot be serious about the wellbeing of the Karoo.”

Neville van Rooy

Climate crisis

He said government should focus on sustainable renewable energy instead, and that the continued use and investment into fossil fuels had a direct consequence on climate change, in addition to degrading the environment people depend on.

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Van Rooy warned that the world has been experiencing more severe weather phenomena at an increasing rate, saying examples of such effects were the recent devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal, and the current heatwaves wreaking havoc across parts of Europe.

Creecy’s spokesperson Albi Modise did not respond to the concerns and referred The Citizen to a statement issued on the release of the amendments for public inputs.

“We invite all stakeholders to deposit their comments using the process detailed in the statement,” he said.

Impact on Eco-tourism

Warren Blaauw, an activist with civil society organisation Climate Group Central Karoo said fracking will have a devastating effect on the environment, which will affect emerging farmers trying to build their lives on the limited available land and water.

“What about the impact on the local eco-tourism sector? We want renewable energy, not fracking, in the Karoo,” he said.

Blaauw said Safcei, in its comments on the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment for Shale Gas in 2015, had highlighted that the relevant public institutions’ lack of readiness and knowledge about ground water conditions in the Karoo, would not allow for responsible hydraulic fracturing in this sensitive environment.

Francesca de Gasparis, Safcei executive Director has appealed to government to acknowledge and promote the right of all individuals to a safe and prosperous living environment.

She said government had a moral and ethical duty to heed the needs of its people and must ensure that not only local communities, but also the environment, was able to thrive and prosper.

“…as the climate crises continues to display its effects, we do not agree that fracking is the answer. We believe that sustainable renewable energy is the best way to go,” De Gasparis added.

• siphom@citizen.co.za

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