Malawi Civil Society Against Paladin to discharge Kayerekera Uranium mine Water

Malawi Civil Society Against Paladin to discharge Kayerekera Uranium mine Water

The Malawi Civil Society Organisations under the banner of Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN), traditional leaders, local communities against Paladin Africa Limited's intentions to discharge contaminated water from the trailings dam at Kayerekera Uranium mine into Sere or North Rukuru Rivers.

This call comes few days following recommendation by the National Water Development & Management Technical Committee in the Ministry of Agriculture for the Minister to issue a permit allowing Paladin Africa Limited to discharge water from the tailings ponds at the Kayelekera Uranium Mine into the Sere or North Rukuru Rivers. The Committee contented that Paradin has satisfied International recommendation of treating water safe for drinking.

NRJN has released a statement expressing their stand on the matter and it has set 7 days which the deadline is Wednesday 26th November, 2014 demanding Paradin to give them an official statement confirming it did not discharge its water otherwise the group shall explore all means to ensure that Paladin does not endanger the lives of poor Malawians.

The CSOs are of no doubt of tailings, which are mainly in the form of sludge (mud), comprise of waste uranium rocks, acids, and other chemicals that if the decision is effected “there shall be escalated radiation exposure to the people near the area including contamination of the rivers that directly drains into Lake Malawi. It is a known fact that the used in the processing of the yellow cake.

The statement issued on 19th November 2014 has eight signatories among them NRJN Board chairperson, chiefs and other organisations that are representing local communities.

NRJN has more than 33 CSOs who are actively in the extractive industry sector in Malawi under the network such organizations includes, FOCUS, Citizen for Justice(CFJ), Action Aid - Malawi, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), IPI, CCJP, CCAP Livingstonia Synod Church and Society Programme, CEPA, MEJN, amongst several others.

Read the Statement

Malawi Civil Society Organisations, Traditional leaders, local communities, and religious leaders against Paladin Africa Limited’s intentions to discharge contaminated water from the tailings dam at Kayerekera Uranium Mine into Sere/North Rukuru Rivers.

We, the under-mentioned members of the Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN) – a grouping of over 33 civil society organizations, who are active in the Extractive Industry Sector (Mining, oil and gas) and including Local Community members, Traditional Authorities, faith Leaders and concerned citizens around Karonga , do hereby express our rave concerns following the recommendation by the National Water Development & Management Technical Committee in the Ministry of Agriculture for the Minister to issue a permit allowing Paladin Africa Limited to discharge water from the tailings ponds at the Kayelekera Uranium Mine into the Sere / North Rukuru Rivers which will eventually flow into Lake Malawi 50 kilometres downstream.

Our collective position on the matter follows the Sumuka Inn declaration where members of the Natural Resources Justice Network, local community members , chiefs, church leaders and concerned citizens living in Karonga convened at Sumuka Inn in Karonga to deliberate on Paladin Africa’s intentions to effect such an exercise, which according to the delegates and also in the absence of adequate, convincing information, posed serious imminent and future environmental and human rights implications on the country especially on the people living in Karonga district. The meeting, which was held on 4th November 2014, came up with several recommendations and demands for both Paladin and Malawi government to act upon with utmost urgency. Prior to the Sumuka Inn declaration, Paladin Africa bankrolled and facilitated the summoning of a District Executive meeting at Karonga district council on 28th October with the objective of buying political support from the members as well as invited chiefs present at the meeting just to support their highly questionable plan to discharge toxic effluent into natural river systems.

According to officials from Paladin Africa Ltd present at the meeting, Paladin fears that if the water from the tailings dam is not released into Rukuru River then there is a high risk that the contaminated water from the dam would overflow as a result of the impending rains. It was, however, very clear from the deliberations and outcome of the said DEC meeting that the popular opinion wasn’t convinced to support their stance, and hence expressed their deep reservations against the move. Paladin claims the water to be discharged will be managed to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) drinking water guideline for uranium, which is 30 micrograms per litre. Paladin said that there would be no risk to people drawing water for domestic purposes from the river system downstream from Kayelekera Uranium Mine, nor any threat to the environment.

However, it is beyond reasonable doubt that if the decision is effected there shall be escalated radiation exposure doses, primarily to the people of Karonga and most parts of Malawi in general since the river directly drains into Lake Malawi. It is a known fact that the tailings, which are mainly in the form of sludge (mud), comprise of waste uranium rocks, acids, and other chemicals used in the processing of the yellow cake. This means that as long-lived decay products such as thorium-230 and radium-226 are not removed, the sludge still contains 85% of the initial radioactivity of the ore. Due to technical limitations through the process of extracting yellow cake, all of the uranium present in the ore cannot be extracted. As a result the sludge still contains 5% to 10% of the uranium initially present in the ore. In addition, the sludge contains heavy metals and other contaminants such as arsenic, as well as chemical reagents used during the uranium milling process. Radioactive nuclides take thousands of years to become relatively harmless i.e. the level of radioactivity of the tailings remains constant for more than 10,000 years. There is thus, a strong possibility of the people living along the river banks and beside the Lake being exposed to unnaturally high levels of radiation and water toxicity.

In addition, confirmed reports indicate that the Kayelekera Tailings Storage Facility is holding one of the highest grade ore which had been dumped due to uranium extraction complications that arose because of the nature of rocks that were intercepted at depth hence most of it went to the tailings as effluents. This is even a rare case in most of the tailings at world standard. As such we do not subscribe to the claims by Paladin that the water to be released into the environment would be free of radio-nuclides, as there is no scientifically proven process supporting such claims.

The fact that Paladin fears overflowing from the tailings ponds, is indicative of major flaws in the design and construction of the tailings pond. It is however very shocking and inhumane for Paladin to put the lives of millions of Malawians at risk as a result of their own failure to plan properly.

The dismal past track record of governmental monitoring and regulation of mining operations does not inspire confidence. We therefore insist that no permit to dump waste effluent be granted to Paladin (or anyone else) until such time as we are assured that the relevant Ministries are fully capacitated to maintain constant vigil of an international standard on the quality and purity of the waste water on a long term basis.

It therefore seems to be a callous disregard for the rule of law and adherence to their EIA for Paladin to resort to such strategies simply to minimise their costs. In simplest terms we would say that Paladin is taking advantage of the weak laws and the relatively low capacity of the law enforcement system in Malawi.

We therefore ask Paladin to build a second tailings dam as was the initial plan and consequently refrain from this malicious practice of discharging radioactive effluents into the river systems, which would subject lives of innocent Malawians to a series of acute and chronic health effects.The short, medium to long term health hazards emanating from exposure to high levels of radiation include lung cancer, skin cancer, cancer of the throat, nausea, loss of hair, etc.

We also caution the Government of Malawi through the minister for Agriculture to refrain from rushing into granting permission to Paladin Africa to dispose such wastes in the absence of clear, honest wide consultations and dissemination of the information on the matter. We would view the act as, not only undemocratic and hence a clear human rights violation, but also an indicator of the perennial cancer that has become of our governments of not putting the interests of their subjects at heart. More disheartening is the opacity with which the Malawi government appears to have conducted the dealings with Paladin Africa on the matter, that it took the efforts of some Civil Society leaders and communities to unearth these clandestine moves which have no place in the democratic dispensation. Perhaps, this is the reason why the government continues to postpone the tabling of access to information legislation in parliament for passing into the law as well as the public release of the environmental assessment audit report which remain within the confines of those in authority. This must be condemned in the strongest terms.

We remind the Government of Malawi of their constitutional responsibility to nurture and maintain environmental sanctity for future generations as enshrined in S13 (d) of our Constitution, which amongst other things, states that the Government shall manage the environment responsibly in order to:

i. prevent the degradation of the environment;

ii. provide a healthy living and working environment for the people of Malawi;

iii. accord full recognition to the rights of future generations by means of environmental protection and the sustainable development of natural resources; and

iv. conserve and enhance the biological diversity of Malawi.

We therefore demand that:

i)                    Paladin immediately halts the process of discharging radioactive effluents into our river system. Instead Paladin should conform to the initial plans of building a second tailings dam. In this regard, we are giving Paladin Africa Limited a maximum of 7days (up to Wednesday 26th November, 2014) to give us an official statement confirming that this practice has been stopped. We demand that Paladin should conform to the plant design recommendations of building a second tailings dam. Failing to abide by this, we the undersigned shall explore all means at our disposal to ensure that Paladin does not endanger the lives of poor Malawians.

ii)                  Within a maximum of seven days (up to Wednesday 26th November, 2014) Paladin should inform the whole nation the actual reason why they would want to release water from the tailings dam. The tailings dam does not collect surface running water and as such there is no way the tailings dam would overflow because of just rainwater.

iii)         Government should urgently set up an independent water quality monitoring team for the Kayelekera Uranium Mine, which shall comprise amongst others civil society representatives, chiefs, local community members, and relevant independent technocrats. We further demand that a detailed environmental audit be done in a transparent manner with the results made public.

iv)                Government must under no circumstances allow Paladin to release water from the tailings dam into the river system pending wider consultations with stakeholders. Local communities alongside civil society organizations and other key independent technical stakeholders should be extensively consulted on the matter by both government and Paladin.

The statement has been signed by Kossam Jomo Munthali NRJN Board chairperson and Reinford Mwangonde NRJN national coordinator.

Representing the local communities, Paramount Chief Kyungu, Senior Tradional Authority Kalonga, Harry Mwanyembe Councillor for Rukuru Ward, Patrick Kishombe Chairperson for Karonga district council, Winston Mwagomba Uhara Foundation and Ruth Chaula District Coordinator for Karonga Women Forum.