Drought, Mining and Water Wars Prof Mary Galvin University of Johannesburg Centre for Social Change

Water Wars: protest

Service Delivery/ “Community” Protests About service delivery, but also accountability and corruption 22% of all protests are community protests, most labour related Number of community protests doubled from 2004 to 2013, from 700 per year to 1400 per year

Violence misrepresented, used to justify police response

Water Wars redefined 1. Water conservation (pricing) 2. System maintenance (dry taps) 3. Self-connecting (no access) 4. Dry sanitation (lack of options) Characterised by ongoing local resistance.

Climate change: Scarcity gets worse

1. Mining and water wars: resource pollution and regulation/ licenses Acid Mine Drainage: 6 000 old, abandoned mines, and many of them are ticking environmental time bombs. Acid mine water containing sulphates and heavy metals goes largely untreated into rivers, and many poor communities who cannot access or afford municipal water have no choice but to use water from these rivers. (WWF) Since the inception of the National Water Act 17 years ago, only four cases involving mines contravening the legislation had been successfully prosecuted. According to an annexure attached to an earlier reply, there are a total of 104 mines around the country operating without a water-use license.  Less than 1% of the country’s major water source areas were being mined, “70% of the areas in Mpumalanga are under either a prospecting or mining licence, and this is cause for particular concern”.

2. Mining and water wars: resource allocation Allocation: use of water by mines over people! Priority to basic needs and ecological reserve first– in National Water Act. Government by Dept now, should be Catchment Management Agencies but not set up/ finalized due to Dept incompetence and politics Water Allocation Reform- to review allocations so more equitable– NOT DONE!

Madibeng municipality Jericho Hebron Marikana Mothutlung Majakaneng Kosmos Village Pecanwood Golf Estate Madibeng Magaliesburg Mountains and ‘Cradle of Humankind’

3. Mining and Water Wars: Cost Low cost of water to mines, industry and agriculture. Example of electricity

Derek Keys, last apartheid finance minister & first democratic SA finance minister under Mandela – controversially allowed SA firm Gencor to externalise billions in 1993 to buy Shell Oil’s Billiton, then became its CEO in 1994 Xolani Mkhwanazi, former SA National Electricity Regulator, now BHP Billiton Southern Africa Chief Executive Officer 3 hours north of Durban, Richards Bay’s aluminum smelter, beneficiary of $0.02/kWh electricity thanks to forty-year Eskom deal BHP Billiton at heart of SA’s crony-capitalist ‘Minerals Energy Complex’: big mining houses get world’s cheapest electricity, at the expense of lowest-income South Africans Mick Davis, former Eskom Treasurer who offered BHP Billiton the sweetheart power deals, then worked for BHP Billiton (and now heads world’s largest mining house, Xstrata)‏ Vincent Maphai, chair of Southern Africa BHP Billiton, attended February 2008 meeting with President Mbeki, defending firm during national grid blackouts … Marius Kloppers, BHP Billiton CEO (Melbourne) applied intense pressure to ‏halt disconnection threat

annual report, though reason for R9.7bn 2009-10 losses SA offers world’s cheapest electricity to metals smelters - phase-out needed! Eskom brags in 2009 annual report, though reason for R9.7bn 2009-10 losses

Moving from service to resource protests! Citizen science to monitor rivers and water sources- show when mining affects water supply Gather information about water in mining affected communities Fight for allocation of water to people over mines: a legal right in the Water Act (Water Allocation Reform) Campaign so cost of water to mines reflects its true value