STOP OIL DRILLING IN THE KAVANGO

Scientists around the world have shown that drilling for oil and gas comes with a number of very serious dangers to economies, people, livestock, wildlife, rivers, ecosystems and our climate.

OIL DRILLING KILLS LIVESTOCK

The United States National Institute of Health says that livestock poisoning from oil drilling is common. When cows drink from water contaminated by oil spills, the toxins “target the kidney, liver and brain. Exposure-linked abortions have been reported in cattle.” (1)

Canada-based company ReconAfrica has continually failed to line their drilling waste pits in the Kavango East Region with an impermeable plastic liner, which usually helps protect the shallow groundwater table from toxic oil pollution. This is legally required in Canada. Why isn’t the company protecting Namibia’s water?

OIL DRILLING CAUSES LONG-LASTING POLLUTION OF WATER AND SOIL

In the Niger Delta in Nigeria, where oil drilling has been going on for decades, scientists say people and animals have been poisoned with cancer-causing chemicals. (2)

There is virtually no way to clean up these toxins after foreign oil companies have taken their profits back overseas. All that is left is poisoned, destitute communities, with serious diseases like cancer, polluted soil that will no longer grow crops and water that can no longer be used for drinking or fishing.

“Our crops are no longer productive. There are no more fish in the water.” (3) Emadee Roberts Kpai, farmer from Kegbara Dere, Ogoniland, Nigeria

DO WE WANT OUR CROP FIELDS TO BE POLLUTED WITH OIL LIKE THEY ARE IN NIGERIA?

ReconAfrica has already drilled at least one well in Kavango East Region inside of the Kapinga Kamwalye Community Conservancy without a leasehold over the land or permission from the conservancy.

Why is the Namibian government allowing a foreign company to endanger the lives and livelihoods of communities who rely upon tourism and sustainable conservation solutions after seeing the nightmare of oil drilling in Nigeria?

STOP OIL DRILLING IN THE KAVANGO OIL DRILLING DRIVES CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE

In October 2022 the United Nations said there should be no new oil and gas drilling allowed anywhere if the world wants to stop a climate catastrophe. Namibia has some of the most powerful sunshine in the world. Why risk our desert country’s future on a dead-end business that dooms all of us when we could be global clean energy leaders in a decade?

THE OIL CURSE: OIL DRILLING BURIES DEMOCRACY

“Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil.” Princeton University Press (4)

ReconAfrica has employed government and traditional leaders in their quest to find oil. They have found nothing, and international criminal investigations into possible foreign corruption by the company are ongoing.

According to local people, ReconAfrica continues to damage Namibian community forests, crop fields and even homes.

WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT ALLOWING THIS UNACCEPTABLE ABUSE OF NAMIBIAN LAND AND PEOPLE?

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(1) US National Institute of Health: Toxicology of oil field pollutants in cattle: a review, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8588300/

(2) Phys.org: Oil cleanup in southern Nigeria still a ‘long way’ from target https://phys.org/news/2021-10-oil-cleanup-southern-nigeria.html

(3) Amnesty International: The price of oil: the impact of oil pollution on Niger Delta communities, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2015/11/human-face-oil-pollution-niger-delta/

(4) Princeton University Press: The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations, https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691159638/the-oil-curse Published by the Women’s Leadership Centre for Civil Society Organisations in Namibia. Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.