Gerrit van Tonder: Water expert who changed his mind
1953-2014
PROFESSOR Gerrit van Tonder, who has died in Bloemfontein at the age of 61, was recognised as South Africa’s leading hydrogeologist.
He performed a spectacular academic flip-flop when, after writing a series of articles in support of hydraulic fracturing for underground gas in the Karoo, he announced two years ago that he was wrong and that fracking actually posed huge dangers and should not be allowed.
Farmers who had sharply criticised his credentials as a scientist, after his articles in praise of fracking appeared in Landbouweekblad and Farmer’s Weekly, became ardent fans overnight, as did the entire anti-fracking lobby.
He was invited to more than 100 meetings and was given celebrity treatment when he attended.
Critics thought that the “Uturn professor”, as he was quickly labelled by the media, had jumped the gun by going public with his new research before it was published — it has still not been published — and submitted to peer review.
They said that he was motivated by publicity — especially after he offered to engage a pro-fracking academic from the US in a television debate — and money.
He said the only money he received was as part of the initial task team funded by Shell to look at the possibility of fracking in South Africa.
In fact, if money had been his goal, Van Tonder could have been the highest-paid groundwater consultant in the country. But he was an academic and a scientist at heart and chose not to go the far more lucrative consultancy route.
When hydrogeology consultants had a problem or needed their facts or reports checked, they called him. More often than not, he would give an informal opinion without asking, expecting or receiving a cent.
As for publicity, he enjoyed it, was good at it and felt it served a useful purpose in bringing science to the people.
He thought controversy was no bad thing either, and loved stirring it up if he thought it would stimulate public debate.
He said if he had waited for his research, which he did with one of his PhD students, to be published before going public, it might have been too late.
He wanted to make the public and the government aware as soon as possible that fracking was not going to be as easy or safe as the oil companies would have them believe.
He was inspired to reconsider his position on fracking after reading a study by US geohydrologist Tom Myers in which he said contaminated water from fracked layers underground could rise to groundwater levels, thanks to the drill holes which became “preferential pathways”.
His research convinced him that fracked water at depth would rise rapidly in the Karoo because of its unique dolerite dykes and sills.
Van Tonder was born in Bloemfontein on March 9 1953 and matriculated at Sand du Plessis High School, where he was head prefect.
At university, he excelled at maths and statistics. He said that everything in hydrogeology boiled down to equations, which he could read the way other people read storybooks.
He lived with his second wife, Fransie, a fellow academic, on a farm outside Bloemfontein, where he doted on four donkeys and a large rose garden.
He was an ardent disciple of South Africa’s other great flipflop artist, sports scientist Dr Tim Noakes, whose new lowcarb, high-fat diet he followed religiously — for the most part. Just before the massive heart attack that killed him, he succumbed to an urge for some chocolate.
He is survived by two children and his wife, Fransie. — Chris Barron