Is Russia poisoning Namibia’s water in its hunt for uranium? | Mining

Windhoek and Leonardville, Namibia – Impo Present Kapamba Musasa holds a hose pipe in a single hand and gestures to a backyard of cabbages, onions and turnips with the opposite. He’s a instructor within the crumbling village of Leonardville in rural Namibia, the place water is turning into scarce.

The greens, grown for kids on the main college the place he teaches, are watered from one of many largest aquifers on earth. The groundwater nourishes tens of 1000’s of individuals and is the lifeblood of the Kalahari Desert, which stretches throughout Namibia, in addition to neighbouring Botswana and South Africa.

Round Leonardville, 386km (240 miles) from the capital, Windhoek, scrubland meets ochre-coloured dunes generally known as the “pink fingers of the Kalahari” for the way in which they attain out throughout the huge desert.

Leonardville is a village of cattle farmers subsisting off meagre authorities handouts and homegrown greens, but it surely additionally sits on high of huge deposits of uranium – the gasoline for nuclear reactors.

That has introduced the village of some thousand folks some unlikely consideration in recent times.

On store home windows and village waypoints, posters seem, bearing the identify and brand of a international firm: Rosatom – Russia’s State Atomic Vitality Company, one of many world’s largest uranium firms.

Rosatom has spent years making an attempt to arrange a mine in jap Namibia after the nation lifted a brief ban on uranium mining in 2017. The remoted African village has since seen an inflow of funding from firms linked to the Russian authorities.

A Rosatom subsidiary, generally known as Headspring Investments, in 2011 proposed to make use of a controversial drilling technique to extract the uranium, generally known as “in situ” mining, which includes injecting an answer that features sulphuric acid down into the aquifer. Whereas Australian miners often use the drilling technique, it has by no means been tried in Africa, and isn’t normally executed round aquifers, mining consultants stated.

Whereas the prospect of economic reward has some locals supporting a possible mine within the space, Rosatom’s proposal has additionally raised considerations amongst others within the nation.

Calle Schlettwein, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, advised Namibia’s Nationwide Meeting on February 29 that Headspring’s actions may “endanger the groundwater” in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, “destroying the financial foundation for your entire area”.

Moreover, due to the necessity to quiet down gear throughout uranium mining, the method can be one of the vital water-intensive operations. Namibia is turning into hotter and drier due to local weather change, leaving residents extra depending on aquifers to develop their meals as rainfall decreases. With the prospect of a uranium mine and its results dangling over their heads, native farmers fear their livelihoods will disappear – for good.

“Air pollution goes to alter folks’s livelihoods,” says college instructor Impo, taking a look at his crops.

Some native landowners have even began campaigning towards the deliberate uranium mine, asking the federal government to think about the dangers to their water provide.

“Ought to uranium mining be allowed, it may render the water within the southeastern area of Namibia unfit for human and animal consumption, successfully bringing agriculture to a complete and everlasting standstill within the space,” stated former Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) president, Piet Gouws, talking to the Namibian Sun in 2022.

Simply because it appeared that Rosatom was on the cusp of reaching its objective of constructing the uranium mine, the Namibian authorities cancelled the drilling permits in November 2021, citing non-compliance with the licence phrases.

Many farmers hoped this was the final they might hear of Headspring. However Rosatom doubled down – on the bottom in Leonardville and by attempting to win supporters by way of softer means.

Journeys, truck and affect operations

Since 2021, Rosatom has been accused of working an affect marketing campaign in Namibia, sponsoring journeys for presidency officers and reporters to go to Russia, Al Jazeera has discovered.

In April this 12 months, Rosatom subsidiary Uranium One invited Namibian Minister of Well being and Social Companies Kalumbi Shangula to Sochi, Russia, to attend Atomexpo 2024, a nuclear business occasion organised by Rosatom, the place he spoke about rising most cancers circumstances in his nation. Uranium One had earlier donated a four-wheel drive to the Namibian Ministry of Well being.

Pijoo Nganate, the governor of the Omaheke area the place Leonardville is situated, has additionally visited Russia a number of instances in journeys he confirmed have been a minimum of partially funded by Rosatom. Nganate at first refused to reply whether or not Rosatom sponsored his journeys to Russia.

“Allow them to make these claims,” he stated when knowledgeable through cellphone of accusations that the management within the area was aligning itself with the Russian-state entity, including: “That’s immaterial, you lose the larger image.”

He went on to inform Al Jazeera that it was Namibian ministries that had requested some donations within the type of meals and drugs from Rosatom, not the opposite method round, and identified the extreme unemployment and poverty in Omaheke. The Omaheke area has the smallest inhabitants in Namibia, however one in every of its highest poverty charges, at 51 % of the inhabitants.

Different authorities officers are listed on journey paperwork, seen by Al Jazeera, as attending a number of sponsored journeys to Russia and Kazakhstan between 2022 and 2023. Namibian authorities officers showing on these paperwork embrace Governor Nganate; Obeth Kandjoze, the director of the Nationwide Planning Fee; Hardap regional Governor Salomon April, who stated he couldn’t attend; and the chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on pure assets, Tjekero Tweya.

Telephone calls to Kandjoze and Tweya by Al Jazeera, looking for their response, went unanswered.

Responding to Al Jazeera’s request for touch upon the accusations of the corporate attempting to realize affect by way of donations and sponsored journeys, Rosatom spokesperson Riaan van Rooyen stated: “It’s disheartening to see and listen to that there are these cynical folks that label Uranium One’s group upliftment efforts as ‘greenwashing’ and even ‘bribery’.”

“These privileged ones have had quite a few alternatives and time to uplift their very own communities,” he stated, referring to the farmers who personal the land.

To critics of Rosatom, van Rooyen’s feedback have been an instance of efforts to stoke deep-seated racial tensions that persist greater than three a long time after the top of apartheid, between wealthier, principally white landowners and poorer Black villagers drawn to the Russian firm’s guarantees.

‘Why can’t the mine be opened in Leonardville?’

Leonardville is a barren village of dusty roads and sheet-metal houses, the place residents spend entire days mendacity inside to flee the sweltering warmth. Younger folks stroll up and down in teams in quest of jobs, spending cash on alcohol to get by. Many are lured into drug dealing, typically utilizing greater than they promote, whereas moms pray for a greater future for his or her kids.

Driving across the settlement, dwelling circumstances resembled squats, with as much as 10 folks dwelling in a two-bedroom home. Villagers say they really feel exploited by the predominantly white landowners who dictate the phrases of their work and pay. White farmers personal 70 % of agricultural land in Namibia, whereas Black Namibians personal simply 16 % as of 2018, in response to the Namibian Statistics Company (NSA) — regardless that Namibia’s inhabitants is 98.2 % Black.

Final 12 months, ambulances — which frequently must journey 145km (90 miles) from Gobabis, the regional capital and nearest metropolis, to get to the village — stopped coming to Leonardville after the Omaheke authorities pulled funding due to the price and distance.

Police automobiles have damaged down from the grime and sand and haven’t been changed. Home violence is rising, locals say.

“At evening we name the police. However the police don’t come,” stated Magdelena, a 53-year-old mom of 5 within the village, who stated drug use and vandalism are rising. All her kids, save one, are on the lookout for work.

Leonardville resident Petronella Subelelo worries in regards to the lack of jobs and the rising crime charge. She feels that uranium mining could assist issues enhance in the neighborhood.

“As a result of there are not any work alternatives, the youth are ingesting an excessive amount of and crime is continually rising,” stated the pensioner, who was born and raised within the village. “Why can’t the mine be opened in Leonardville? That’s what we need to know,” she advised Al Jazeera.

About 800 folks have died from malnutrition within the Omaheke area since 2022 — together with 45 kids in 2023, in response to Governor Nganate.

Meals is commonly grown regionally, with 1000’s counting on the groundwater for sustenance. The costs of fundamental staples comparable to wheat, maize meal, pasta and rice within the Southern African nation went up in April 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Namibia declared a state of emergency due to drought in Could — its second in 5 years.

Google Earth Engine evaluation of above-ground freshwater and plants exhibits vegetation declining considerably between 2011 and 2021. The federal government introduced plans to kill a whole lot of untamed animals to stave off hunger for Namibians in August, partially as a result of there was not sufficient freshwater to maintain them.

With out the aquifer Rosatom plans to drill into, a significant water line for Namibia and its neighbours could possibly be reduce off.

In what Rosatom says is an effort to alleviate malnutrition, the corporate arrange a brand new kitchen on Could 24 at Noasanabis Main College in Leonardville, the identical college the place Impo teaches, investing greater than 400,000 Namibian {dollars} (about $22,100) yearly within the feeding undertaking. The kitchen, outfitted with fashionable gear and utensils, employs 10 cooks to feed greater than 600 kids.

Throughout its official opening, the group gathered with the college choir singing thank-you songs. Salome Witbooi, the chairperson of the Leonardville Village Council, stated the kitchen would assist handle malnutrition and urged residents to not vandalise it, as crime rises within the village.

With the brand new amenities, Impo’s efforts to feed schoolchildren have been largely forgotten as the college now not has any use for the vegetable backyard.

As a substitute, many within the village are hoping {that a} uranium dream 14 years within the making can lastly lead them out of determined poverty — regardless that others concern that the group might need a heavy value to pay for it.

‘Gross violations’

In 2010, then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin travelled to Namibia to signal a memorandum of intent to discover the nation for uranium. Sergei Kiriyenko, the top of Rosatom, indicated that Russia deliberate to speculate about $1bn in Namibian uranium.

The identical 12 months, Headspring acquired eight unique prospecting licences (EPLs) in Namibia. The corporate started establishing water testing amenities on a number of farms in Leonardville after acquiring an environmental clearance certificates (ECC) in 2011, drilling a minimum of 600 exploration boreholes and 36 boreholes to observe water throughout 39 completely different farms. The undertaking was anticipated to final 15 to 25 years.

These EPLs weren’t initially permitted for uranium exploration due to a nationwide 10-year ban. However the Namibian authorities lifted its moratorium on uranium mining in 2017. When it did so, it prolonged all of Headspring’s licences to “nuclear gasoline supplies”, permitting the corporate to drill for uranium.

The official who permitted Headspring’s EPLs for uranium mining was Mines Commissioner Erasmus Shivolo, who stepped down from his position in October 2022 after allegations surfaced that he had taken a bribe of fifty million Namibian {dollars} ($2.8m) from a Chinese language lithium miner referred to as Xinfeng Investments, in response to Namibian media.

Mines and Vitality Minister Tom Alweendo didn’t hearth Shivolo, however moved him to a unique a part of the ministry. Alweendo denied accusations that he had been conscious of the bribe.

Over the course of the drilling, Headspring found a big uranium deposit within the sandstone beneath the aquifer that was “believed for now to be appropriate for in-situ leaching”, it stated. The subsequent step would have concerned drilling extra holes and injecting a weak sulphuric acid resolution into the bottom to get on the uranium.

To begin drilling, Headspring needed to get hold of yet one more ECC from a licensed consultancy. Headspring approached two companies for the certificates, however each walked away, with the second describing “irreconcilable variations” with Headspring as the rationale, in response to Informante, a Namibian information outlet.

By then, Leonardville’s farmers had begun to mobilise towards Headspring, and the federal government took discover. Former agriculture govt director Percy Misika knowledgeable the company in a letter dated November 9, 2021, that the federal government was cancelling two mining permits as a result of “egregious carelessness”.

“Based mostly on the gross violations and non-compliance of allow circumstances, Allow No 11561 and Allow No 11562 are hereby withdrawn with instant impact and no additional drilling is permitted,” wrote Misika.

“Though no mining actions are going down, the variety of boreholes drilled has ignored the licence circumstances of correct sealing and grouting,” stated Agriculture Minister Schlettwein whereas addressing parliamentarians within the Nationwide Meeting.

Though Headspring misplaced two of its EPL permits, it nonetheless has seven. One other eight permits seem in public registries below the possession of an organization referred to as Inexperienced Mining. Land paperwork seen by Al Jazeera recommend that Inexperienced Mining is in the end owned by Headspring, which may circumvent the necessity for Rosatom to get its cancelled licences reinstated.

Contamination dispute

On one store window in Leonardville is a poster in Afrikaans — essentially the most spoken language within the village — which reads: “Headspring Investments is conscious of fabricated rumours circulating concerning the actions on Tripoli”, a farm within the village, alluding to murmurs of water contamination by way of mining actions. “If you wish to know extra and need to familiarise your self with the actions there, please name Riaan van Rooyen.”

Van Rooyen is the deputy director of strategic communication and popularity administration for Uranium One, by way of which Headspring operates. He misplaced his earlier job at Financial institution Windhoek after evaluating Black folks with monkeys in a social media publish.

His communications have been geared toward addressing considerations about the usage of sulphuric acid in uranium mining. In areas the place the water stage is simply too excessive, firms can not use open pit mining as they do in Namibia’s desert, or the mines would flood — as a substitute, they’re compelled to inject both a robust acid or an alkaline substance comparable to sodium carbonate to “leach” the uranium and suction it again up earlier than refining it.

Throughout a press briefing discussing potential contamination of the aquifer in March, reporters requested van Rooyen if there was a threat of contamination. He answered that farmers had been “utilizing sulphuric acid for many years within the Stampriet water basin space”, one thing which the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Affiliation (SAUMA) referred to as misinformation.

A neighborhood farmer, van Rooyen claimed, used sulphuric acid to decrease the pH worth of the soil. Sure meals, notably strawberries and blueberries, develop higher when the pH is decrease — neither are native to Namibia, and Al Jazeera reporters didn’t observe any in Leonardville throughout two reporting journeys. “So why are they so apprehensive?” van Rooyen concluded. When requested to make clear the remark, he later responded that the farmer accountable couldn’t be recognized and that he couldn’t elaborate as a result of “we [Headspring] have no idea what the farmer did flawed”.

When requested if Headspring may produce water stories exhibiting before-and-after ranges of uranium and sulphuric acid within the aquifer, van Rooyen responded with a photograph of three file binders and stated: “I’m certain you don’t count on me to repeat all these water stories as proof that [we] had water evaluation executed”, earlier than sending a water report whose authenticity couldn’t be verified by Al Jazeera.

Rosatom wants approval from three completely different authorities companies to reinstate its licence and restart drilling, setting the stage for a multibillion-dollar undertaking that might cement Russia’s foothold within the uranium marketplace for a long time.

Of these, the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Vitality and the Ministry of Surroundings, Forestry and Tourism have reportedly not hindered Rosatom’s plan — referred to in authorities paperwork as “Undertaking Wings”. The Ministry for Agriculture, Water and Land Reform is the one holdout, sources stated.

“On the finish of the day, we can not survive with out water and meals, however we are able to dwell with out coal or uranium,” stated Agriculture Minister Schlettwein.

The destiny of these licences will now be determined by Namibia’s subsequent authorities, after elections on November 27. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah — the candidate of the governing celebration Swapo — predicted to win — has not commented on the dispute, however Russian affect within the nation runs deep, and lengthy.

The erstwhile Soviet Union supported the Swapo government-in-exile earlier than the nation separated from apartheid South Africa in 1990. The celebration continues to be in energy to at the present time and has by no means misplaced an election.

Now it’s Russia’s flip to hunt one thing from Namibia.

Nuclear gasoline provide chains

Namibia grew to become the world’s second-largest uranium producer in 2021, behind solely Kazakhstan, a longtime Russian ally. Namibian uranium has turn into extra essential for the African continent for the reason that closing of the Arlit uranium mine in Niger, simply earlier than the Russian-aligned army rulers changed the civilian authorities, which had acquired Western assist.

If Rosatom’s drilling licences are reinstated in Namibia, Russia would discover itself in command of one of many world’s most essential sources of nuclear gasoline.

Russia owned 40 % of the whole uranium conversion infrastructure on this planet as of 2020, and 46 % of the whole uranium enrichment capability, at a time when international locations are pivoting in the direction of nuclear vitality. In Could, United States President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan invoice banning imports of Russian-enriched uranium, which nonetheless makes up roughly 35 % of US nuclear gasoline.

Across the time of the Ukraine warfare, a number of European nations started investing in nuclear energy in an try to scale back their reliance on Russian pure gasoline. On Could 13, 2022, the UK arrange a fund to allow eight new reactors to be constructed by 2030, whereas the European Parliament permitted a European Union legislation labelling nuclear vitality as inexperienced on July 6 that 12 months.

However vitality analysts fear the efforts could go away many governments reliant on a nuclear energy provide chain already dominated by Russian-state companies.

“[Rosatom] is a key participant within the nuclear gasoline enterprise and sells each items and providers to Europe and the US,” stated James Acton of the Carnegie Vitality Institute, within the run-up to the primary anniversary of the Ukraine Battle in February 2023. “Satirically, the method of weaning itself off Russian fossil fuels has left Europe notably reliant on Russian nuclear exports.”

On June 18 this 12 months, the US Senate handed the ADVANCE Act, to speed up the adoption of next-generation nuclear reactors within the US. Darya Dolzikova, a analysis fellow on the Royal United Companies Institute, wrote in March that “US utilities could battle to maintain nuclear energy vegetation working ought to Russian enriched uranium provide be reduce off”.

On November 15, Russia started throttling exports of enriched uranium to the US nuclear energy vegetation in response to sanctions, Bloomberg reported.

Rosatom’s board is chaired by Sergey Kirienko, a former Russian prime minister who has admitted to “orchestrating Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s occupied territories”, in response to Rusi. The corporate has additionally allegedly offered gear and weaponry to the Russian army. Namibia abstained from a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, together with a majority of African nations.

In the meantime, Russia has begun working with international locations to arrange their very own reactors throughout the globe, together with China, India, Iran and Bangladesh — whereas nuclear cooperation memorandums of understanding have been signed in Zimbabwe, Mali, Burkina Faso and Brazil. In Turkiye, Rosatom has pioneered a “build-to-own” mannequin the place the Russian state funds nuclear reactors which it builds exterior of Russia and finally owns, promoting the electrical energy again to the nation itself. Rosatom executives have indicated that Turkish nuclear energy stations may obtain Namibian uranium as soon as the deliberate mine in Leonardville develops.

Since shedding its drilling licence, Rosatom has additionally introduced plans to fund a nuclear energy plant in Namibia. The event may mark the primary time an African nation’s nuclear provide chain can be managed by the Russian state — from when the uranium is first extracted to the second the spent gasoline rods are faraway from the nuclear reactor.

In April, Ryan Collyer, Rosatom’s chief govt for Central and Southern Africa, took a go to to South Africa, whose Koeberg plant in Cape City is the one nuclear reactor on the continent. Collyer urged South Africa to embrace nuclear vitality.

Chinese language uranium ambitions

However Russia isn’t the one nation seeking to management the provision chains that energy nuclear amenities. Situated within the Namib Desert close to the coastal city of Arandis and 70km (43.5 miles) from Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast, Rossing, Namibia’s largest open pit uranium mine, has attracted funding from China in recent times, with the China Nationwide Uranium Company (CNNC) shopping for 69 % of shares from the Rio Tinto group in 2018. The federal government of Iran has additionally owned 15 % of the Rossing mine since 1976.

Employees on the Rossing mine advised Al Jazeera they have been being laid off for the reason that Chinese language takeover, and have been being changed with contractors, who’re simpler to rent and hearth and don’t include further prices comparable to pension contributions. CNNC additionally owns the Husab mine, solely 5km (3 miles) south, which is about to overhaul Rossing’s uranium manufacturing within the coming years.

Former employees have accused the Chinese language house owners of “union-busting” ways throughout its uranium amenities in Namibia. CNNC fired your entire Rossing department of the Miners Union of Namibia (MUN) after they protested the dismantling of well being and security requirements, they claim. CNNC didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text.

Al Jazeera carried a handheld air air pollution monitor round Swakopmund, Namibia’s second-most developed metropolis of 75,921 residents and 66km (41 miles) from the CNNC mine. The monitor confirmed excessive ranges of PM2.5, particulate matter linked to most cancers circumstances. Most cancers is on the rise in Namibia. It even killed the nation’s third president, Hage Geingob, in February this 12 months.

Residents in Swakopmund, wealthier on common than the remainder of the nation, stated they have been terrified of uranium contamination from the groundwater. Some had put in as much as three separate water filters earlier than ingesting from the faucet.

“The tales we heard from fairly a number of folks have been hair-raising and really worrying,” stated one water remedy employee, wishing to talk anonymously, who shared considerations that 1000’s of individuals have been extra uncovered to uranium in ingesting water than was publicly acknowledged.

To check how a lot uranium could be present in ingesting water in Swakopmund, the employee put in a filter over many months to seize uranium getting into Namibian households straight from the water provide. He meant to show the true stage of uranium within the faucet water, however when he despatched the filter for testing, the water amenities stated the exams can be too harmful.

“The filter system, as submitted by your organization, set off the radiation alarm,” got here the response from the lab, in response to e mail responses shared with Al Jazeera. The corporate declined to look at the filter due to the menace to the employees members, that means that it was not potential to check for the true ranges of uranium.

In an try and confirm claims of water contamination in Leonardville because of Headspring’s actions, Al Jazeera took ingesting water samples from the village to a testing facility named Analytical Laboratory Companies (Analabs) in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital metropolis.

However when Al Jazeera reporters tried to gather the samples for additional testing, Analabs stated the samples had been disposed of. It emerged {that a} businessman named Roland Enke, a Namibian landowner who sources stated has allowed Rosatom the usage of his farmland, had purchased Analabs solely months earlier than.

“It’s successfully in Russian fingers,” stated the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Affiliation (SAUMA), when requested in regards to the laboratory. Analabs stated when approached for remark that it was “completely sure” that neither Enke nor any of its workers would have deliberately tampered with pattern outcomes. Enke didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.

Kuiri Tjipangandjara, chair of the Water Options Group, a partnership of private and non-private firms aiming to bolster Africa’s resilience to local weather drought, confirmed water contamination outcomes from Headspring throughout a presentation on June 17, which revealed that in three to 4 out of 10 boreholes samples there was dissolved uranium within the water, and that radionuclides exceeded permissible limits. However exams additionally discovered excessive uranium ranges in samples the place in-situ mining exercise was not thought to have occurred, making it tough to attribute any contamination to the corporate.

Tjipangandjara warned towards permitting Headspring or different uranium buyers to observe water ranges within the basin, citing a “critical battle of curiosity”, including {that a} soccer participant “can’t be a referee”.

Again in Leonardville, SAUMA and the farmers proceed to face opposition from many villagers. City council conferences are tense, full of accusations on either side.

Namibia’s newest drought is thinning tempers much more. Extra animals are dying as grazing disappears and crops dry out. Farmers sit on their property, their heads hanging low, ready for rain that refuses to return.

“It’s horrific,” stated SAUMA, which represents most of the farmers. “This [drought] tops all of them. The little water that we had has passed by now.”

The water beneath their toes is shortly turning into Leonardville’s solely supply. However for a lot of residents, the possibility to flee poverty is price any threat — even one that might destroy the traditional aquifer sustaining virtually all life round them.