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 trainer within the crumbling village of Leonardville in rural Namibia, the place water is changing into scarce.

The greens, grown for youngsters 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 often known as the “purple 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, nevertheless it additionally sits on high of huge deposits of uranium – the gas 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 emblem of a international firm: Rosatom – Russia’s State Atomic Power Company, one of many world’s largest uranium corporations.

Rosatom has spent years trying 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 corporations linked to the Russian authorities.

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

Calle Schlettwein, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, informed 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 the whole area”.

Moreover, due to the necessity to calm down gear throughout uranium mining, the method can be some of the water-intensive operations. Namibia is changing 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 trainer Impo, his crops.

Some native landowners have even began campaigning in opposition to 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 Solar in 2022.

Simply because it appeared that Rosatom was on the cusp of reaching its aim 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’d hear of Headspring. However Rosatom doubled down – on the bottom in Leonardville and by making an attempt to win supporters by 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 yr, Rosatom subsidiary Uranium One invited Namibian Minister of Well being and Social Providers 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 occasions in journeys he confirmed have been no less than 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 telephone 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 medication from Rosatom, not the opposite approach round, and identified the extreme unemployment and poverty in Omaheke. The Omaheke area has the smallest inhabitants in Namibia, however one in all its highest poverty charges, at 51 p.c 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.

Cellphone 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 making an attempt to realize affect by donations and sponsored journeys, Rosatom spokesperson Riaan van Rooyen stated: “It’s disheartening to see and listen to that there are these cynical those who 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 many years after the top of apartheid, between wealthier, largely 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, usually utilizing greater than they promote, whereas moms pray for a greater future for his or her youngsters.

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 p.c of agricultural land in Namibia, whereas Black Namibians personal simply 16 p.c as of 2018, in line with the Namibian Statistics Company (NSA) — regardless that Namibia’s inhabitants is 98.2 p.c Black.

Final yr, ambulances — which regularly need to 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 fee and distance.

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

“At night time 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 youngsters, save one, are in search of work.

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

“As a result of there aren’t 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 wish to know,” she informed Al Jazeera.

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

Meals is usually grown regionally, with 1000’s counting on the groundwater for sustenance. The costs of primary staples akin 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 Might — its second in 5 years.

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

With out the aquifer Rosatom plans to drill into, an important water line for Namibia and its neighbours might be minimize off.

In what Rosatom says is an effort to alleviate malnutrition, the corporate arrange a brand new kitchen on Might 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 challenge. The kitchen, geared up with trendy gear and utensils, employs 10 cooks to feed greater than 600 youngsters.

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

With the brand new services, Impo’s efforts to feed schoolchildren have been largely forgotten as the varsity 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 worth 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 yr, Headspring acquired eight unique prospecting licences (EPLs) in Namibia. The corporate started establishing water testing services on a number of farms in Leonardville after acquiring an environmental clearance certificates (ECC) in 2011, drilling no less than 600 exploration boreholes and 36 boreholes to observe water throughout 39 completely different farms. The challenge 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 gas 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 known as Xinfeng Investments, in line with Namibian media.

Mines and Power Minister Tom Alweendo didn’t hearth Shivolo, however moved him to a special 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 following 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 acquire 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 line with Informante, a Namibian information outlet.

By then, Leonardville’s farmers had begun to mobilise in opposition to 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 consequence of “egregious carelessness”.

“Primarily based 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 happening, 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 known as Inexperienced Mining. Land paperwork seen by Al Jazeera counsel that Inexperienced Mining is finally 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 — probably the most spoken language within the village — which reads: “Headspring Investments is conscious of fabricated rumours circulating relating to the actions on Tripoli”, a farm within the village, alluding to murmurs of water contamination by mining actions. “If you wish to know extra and wish 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 which Headspring operates. He misplaced his earlier job at Financial institution Windhoek after evaluating Black folks with monkeys in a social media put up.

His communications have been aimed toward addressing issues about using sulphuric acid in uranium mining. In areas the place the water degree is simply too excessive, corporations can’t use open pit mining as they do in Namibia’s desert, or the mines would flood — as a substitute, they’re pressured to inject both a robust acid or an alkaline substance akin 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 danger 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) known 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 unsuitable”.

When requested if Headspring may produce water studies 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 anticipate me to repeat all these water studies as proof that [we] had water evaluation performed”, earlier than sending a water report whose authenticity couldn’t be verified by Al Jazeera.

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

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

“On the finish of the day, we can’t survive with out water and meals, however we will 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 get together 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 get together 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 gas provide chains

Namibia turned the world’s second-largest uranium producer in 2021, behind solely Kazakhstan, a longtime Russian ally. Namibian uranium has change into extra necessary 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 obtained Western help.

If Rosatom’s drilling licences are reinstated in Namibia, Russia would discover itself accountable for one of many world’s most necessary sources of nuclear gas.

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

Across the time of the Ukraine conflict, a number of European nations started investing in nuclear energy in an try to scale back their reliance on Russian pure gasoline. On Might 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 power as inexperienced on July 6 that yr.

However power analysts fear the efforts might 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 gas enterprise and sells each items and companies to Europe and the USA,” stated James Acton of the Carnegie Power Institute, within the run-up to the primary anniversary of the Ukraine Warfare in February 2023. “Mockingly, the method of weaning itself off Russian fossil fuels has left Europe notably reliant on Russian nuclear exports.”

On June 18 this yr, 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 Providers Institute, wrote in March that “US utilities might battle to maintain nuclear energy vegetation working ought to Russian enriched uranium provide be minimize 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 line with 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 ultimately 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 dropping 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 gas 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 power.

Chinese language uranium ambitions

However Russia will not be the one nation seeking to management the provision chains that energy nuclear services. 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 p.c of shares from the Rio Tinto group in 2018. The federal government of Iran has additionally owned 15 p.c of the Rossing mine since 1976.

Employees on the Rossing mine informed 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 akin 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 staff have accused the Chinese language house owners of “union-busting” ways throughout its uranium services in Namibia. CNNC fired the whole Rossing department of the Miners Union of Namibia (MUN) after they protested the dismantling of well being and security requirements, they declare. 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 yr.

Residents in Swakopmund, wealthier on common than the remainder of the nation, stated they have been fearful 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 just a few folks have been hair-raising and really worrying,” stated one water remedy employee, wishing to talk anonymously, who shared issues 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 coming into Namibian households instantly from the water provide. He meant to show the true degree of uranium within the faucet water, however when he despatched the filter for testing, the water services stated the checks 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 line with electronic 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 to 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 Providers (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 using his farmland, had purchased Analabs solely months earlier than.

“It’s successfully in Russian arms,” 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 staff 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 corporations 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 checks additionally discovered excessive uranium ranges in samples the place in-situ mining exercise was not thought to have occurred, making it troublesome to attribute any contamination to the corporate.

Tjipangandjara warned in opposition to permitting Headspring or different uranium traders 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 each 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 lots 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 changing into Leonardville’s solely supply. However for a lot of residents, the possibility to flee poverty is price any danger — even one that might destroy the traditional aquifer sustaining nearly all life round them.