Uranium mining threatens water supplies in Namibia’s village

Namibia's residents are facing a challenging dilemma: the promise of economic growth from uranium mining conflicts with the need to protect the region’s most vital resource—its precious groundwater. 

Impo Gift Kapamba Musasa holds a hose in one hand, gesturing toward a garden filled with cabbages, onions, and turnips with the other. He is a teacher in the deteriorating village of Leonardville, located in rural Namibia, where water is becoming increasingly scarce, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The vegetables, cultivated for the children at the primary school where he works, are irrigated using water from one of the largest aquifers on the planet. This groundwater sustains tens of thousands of people and serves as a vital resource for the Kalahari Desert, which spans across Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.

Located 386 km (240 miles) from the capital, Windhoek, Leonardville lies where scrubland meets the ochre dunes, known as the “red fingers of the Kalahari,” due to their sprawling reach across the vast desert.

The village, home to a small community of cattle farmers living on modest government aid and homegrown produce, also sits atop significant uranium deposits – the key fuel for nuclear reactors.

This has brought unexpected attention to the village, which is home to only a few thousand residents, in recent years.

Posters bearing the name and logo of Rosatom – Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, one of the largest uranium companies in the world – appear on shop windows and at village waypoints.

Rosatom has spent several years trying to establish a mine in eastern Namibia after the country lifted a temporary ban on uranium mining in 2017. Since then, the remote African village has experienced a surge of investment from companies associated with the Russian government.

In 2011, a Rosatom subsidiary, Headspring Investments, proposed using a controversial drilling method called “in situ” mining to extract uranium, which involves injecting a solution containing sulphuric acid into the aquifer. While this method is commonly used by Australian miners, it has never been tried in Africa and is generally avoided near aquifers, according to mining experts.

Although the potential for financial gain has led some locals to support the proposed mine, Rosatom’s plan has sparked concerns among others in the country.

Calle Schlettwein, Namibia’s minister of agriculture, water, and land reform, told the National Assembly on February 29 that Headspring’s activities could "endanger the groundwater" in Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana, potentially "destroying the economic basis for the entire region."

By Naila Huseynova