The FF Plus is concerned about the fact that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy granted an American company, Rhino Oil and Gas, permission to conduct exploration for natural gas, oil and helium in the eastern Free State and KwaZulu Natal.
When the application for exploration was first submitted, the FF Plus immediately registered as an interested and affected party on behalf of the residents of the relevant areas and lodged an official objection to the application. The party also appealed against the subsequent approval of the application.
It is unacceptable that the government is willing to jeopardise the population and farmers’ valuable sources of water without thoroughly considering the risks.
The FF Plus is strongly opposed to the intended exploration activities, which will inevitably lead to hydrofracking in the region, specifically because it falls in the catchment area of many rivers that feed into, among others, the Vaal Dam. The Vaal Dam supplies nearly the whole of Gauteng and millions of people and animals with drinking water.
In South Africa, with its scarce water sources and a government that is apparently more interested in money than conservation, this could have disastrous consequences, like the pollution of groundwater.
International research has proven time and again that certain methods of extraction pollute water sources to such an extent that they are no longer fit for human or animal consumption.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Jan van Niekerk on FF Plus
