Africa-Press – Namibia. ENVIRONMENTAL activists say if the government continues to ignore their calls for investigations into the operations of ReconAfrica, they will conduct their own public enquiry early next year.
Activists say the government has ignored their petition to investigate the Canadian oil and gas exploration company that controversially wants to mine in Namibia’s Kavango East region.
Liz Frank from the Women’s Leadership Centre (WLC) says the petition, which was launched in July last year, calls for investigations into the potential impact of 25 years of oil and gas production in the Kavango regions and the Okavango Delta.
“If the government continues to ignore our call, we plan to conduct our own public enquiry with technical experts from Namibia and abroad early next year, and to disseminate the findings far and wide,” Frank says.
Frank says president Hage Geingob and his administration continue to ignore their calls, referencing Geingob’s August 2021 statement during his meeting with ReconAfrica’s founder, Craig Steinke, that Namibians have a habit of “talking too much and chasing investors away with their negativity”.
In 2018, the Toronto Star reported it would cost 260 billion Canadian dollars to clean up the damage created at the Alberta Tar Sands extraction site in Canada.
Last week, the Keystone pipeline transporting oil from Alberta to the United States was shut down after an oil spill of 14 000 barrels of crude oil into a creek in Kansas.
“Our government leaders would have us believe this will not happen in Namibia to future ReconAfrica pipelines running from the Okavango Delta through community forests, conservancies and farmland all the way to Walvis Bay. “What will the clean-up costs be after ReconAfrica has drilled thousands of wells over the next 25 years?” Frank asks.
ReconAfrica is currently facing a credibility crisis after disgruntled investors launched a class action lawsuit in New York.
The investors allege ReconAfrica issued misleading statements that convinced them to buy shares between February 2019 and September 2021 – shares which have since dropped in value.
Frank says this is not surprising.
“It has taken the investors a long time to wake up to the dealings of this company. Perhaps the Namibian government will wake up now too,” she says.
According to Frank, there have been no direct meetings with the government and ReconAfrica regarding their petition, which was signed by over 70 civil society and environmental organisations.
“Meeting with ReconAfrica would be futile as we have diametrically opposed interests. It will be up to our government to put a stop to this destructive neocolonial exploitation of non-renewable resources in our country, and to work with investors in renewable energy instead,” she says.
Frank urges the relevant government ministries to do research and stop turning a blind eye to the environmental destruction caused by oil and gas companies around the world, and their impact on the growing climate crisis. Meanwhile, questions sent to ReconAfrica and the Ministry of Mines and Energy were not answered by the time of going to print.
The government, through the Environmental Commissioner, in August granted the extension of ReconAfrica’s environmental clearance certificate for three years to run until 26 August 2025.
The stance of the government on ReconAfrica has led to various community leaders and environmental activist groups, together with the Legal Assistance Centre, to lodge an urgent appeal with the High Court, objecting to the extension of the certificate.
The appeal has been denied.
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
