‘No fracking in our Mid lands’
Emotional scenes at meeting called by exploration firm as farmers point out the danger to crops and water supply
KWAZULU-NATAL farmers and environmentalists have hit out at proposals to frack for oil and gas on prime land in the Midlands, saying it would contaminate underground water and affect produce.
Rhino Oil and Gas SA, a subsidiary of Rhino Resources, a Us-based global energy company, announced that it intended to undertake a gas exploration survey.
At a public meeting in Estcourt, Rhino Oil and Gas SA chief operating officer Philip Steyn told members of the community that fracking would be beneficial to the local economy, but they were not convinced. Steyn was accompanied by environmental consultancy SLR Consulting representative Matthew Hemming.
The meeting was held to give farmers the opportunity to raise their concerns about threats to the environment related to the proposed exploration for oil and gas in the region.
A crop and goat farmer, Roy Caldecott, accused Steyn at the meeting of using underhand tactics when he could not adequately explain the dangers of fracking to the environment.
He said it was clear that the firm was not interested in farmers’ produce and the environment.
“It will misdirect the groundwater while the borehole water will become undrinkable. This will affect the streams which enter the Midmar Dam before running to Durban, so everyone will be affected.”
Caldecott said farmers were ready to fight against fracking to protect the environment.
“If fracking goes ahead, the farming industry will suffer the consequences and farm workers will lose their jobs.”
The meeting was disrupted when farmers became emotional after Steyn told the crowd there would be no fracking at this stage but the possibility of it was being explored.
“We are really angry. Both men could not directly respond to us but Households worldwide create 30% more waste than usual over the festive period. This extra waste amounts to a staggering volume of trash, given that the world’s cities generated more than two billion tons of solid waste in 2016. opted to say it (fracking) was to create jobs and boost the sinking economy.
“We plan to oppose this in whatever way possible because if we allow them to frack it will ruin our crops and add to the unemployment rate,” said Caldecott.
A retired adviser to the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute, Dr Stefan Cramer, a hydrologist who opposed fracking in the Karoo, said in a water-scarce country such as South Africa fracking would threaten food security.
“There can be no food security (in terms of quantity, quality and prices) without a vibrant farming sector. Farms survive on several income streams, like food production and ecotourism. Without a successful farming sector, consumers would have to resort to costly food imports, which would drive food prices higher,” said Cramer.
He said the Midlands thrived on farming and tourism, which would be disrupted if fracking was allowed to take place. “The mere threat of fracking discourages investments in the rural economy.”
Department of Mineral Resources spokesperson, Ayanda Shezi, said it was aware of the concerns raised by farmers and the public, and that no hydraulic fracking had been proposed by Rhino and Oil Gas SA in their work programme.