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MINING THREATENS HUGE FLAMINGO HAVEN

by Marx Garckwc
***production of soda ash is about to begin in an area of Botswana rich in bird and animal life. Conservationists have been trying to change the government's plans because they believe movement of people and heavy machinery will chase away the animals and render some species extinct.
TUCKED In the heart of Southern Africa. Botswana Is known as an island of peace and tranquility in a continent too often tom by civil strife and factional wars It is also a haven for wildlife and bird species that are elsewhere extinct.
Relatively undisturbed national parks and game reserves teem with flora and fauna. Botswana has the largest population of savannah elephants, threatened to extinction by ruthless poaching across Africa.
Of the 650.000 left In Africa. Botswana has 67.000. In north central Botswana. the Makgadlkgadl salt pans has one of the largest flamingo populations In Africa.
Yet al) this could perish if the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government does not balance economic develop ment with ecological conservation. It intends to turn the Makgadlkgadl Into a mining settlement.’
The Makgadlkgadl covers 6.500 square kilometres In north central Botswana. Apart from flamingos, tt Is home to vast herds of game
Beneath this dried out lake are enormous quantities of soda ash—enough to serve Africa's needs for the foreseeable future and a sizeable chunk of the overseas market. Soda ash is used to make glass, steel, vanadium, paper pulp, detergent and other chemi cals
The government and the Anglo-American Corporation have formed a company called Soda Ash Botswana to exploit this natural brine. Mining preparations are well advanced at a depression called Sua Pan An extensive network of amenities, including roads and railways, already cover a good part of the pan
Total costs are expected to be around half a billion dollars, capital costs just over 6350 million. The initial output is projected at 300.000 tons of soda ash 650.000 of common salt annually
Conservationists are alar med at the environmental impact of this venture on the
Sofa Ash Botswana's environmental officer, Kukame Ngwanamotsoko, has assured that "we will ecnserve the ecological habitat of our land and participate in the conservation of selected natural areas tn our neighbourhood and we ll pre serve prehistoric and historic artifacts '
Environmental activists are troubled that over two-thirds of Sha Pan lies to the south of the mining site Highway* and railroads Will cross a large portion of the pans from Fran dstown. 140 km to the south east of the mine, and other ci - ties
Ngwanamotsoko says "the lions will comply with legal requirements.” and add* that once the mine 1* operational people will be discouraged from just wandering and driving in the pans.
Production Is now beginning. Ecologists and conservationists argue that once large numbers of people arrive in Sua Pan it will not be easy to control their movement. They also say no proper environmental studies have been carried out and point out that sulphuric acid Is produced when brine Is converted Into soda ash.
Soda Ash Botswana has Indicated that It will be dumped back to the pan Itself. This In Itself must be disastrous because these toxic substances could seep through the water table In the Makagadlk gadl and contaminate neigh bourlng areas.
Questions are also raised about a coal-powered plant being built al Sua. which will use coal from the Morupule Colliery In the Centra) District. Environmentalists say that poor legislation means the plant does not have to match standards of those in Europe or North America.
Another argument 1s over the dredging of the Boro River In the Okavango delta, north western Botswana The gov emment Is doing this to provide people in Manu. Moplpt arid the Orapa township (to the south of delta) with water from the delta.
In January residents of the North West District forced the government to suspend the project. They told the Minister of Mineral Resource and Water Affairs. Archibald Mogwe. that the Southern Okavango Integrated Development Project, as it is called, will dry up the river and adversely affect the Okavango environment.
The local people say they were not properly consulted and that the government told them only of the benefits and hardly mentioned possible damage to the environment.
They also say the govern ment has not made enough studies. People around the delta get their fish and tswlt (roots of reeds) from the river, as well as reeds for thatching their huts.
A three person Greenpeace International fact-finding mis sion to the Okavango delta agreed studies had been inad equate. At a point where the dredging project was to start, a Greenpeace official told a government official: "Your data was collected over a four year period. Yet the preferable pe riod would be 20 years."
Environmental worries have brought the people of the North West District together. In a rare show of unity all three political parties are unanimous In their objection to dredging the river.
Greenpeace officials appealed to the government to establish the Okavango delta system as a protected World Heritage Site and sought an assurance that plans to dredge the Boro River would be abandoned.
As a vast wetland of unique characteristics, the Okavango delta Is home to a wide variety of wild species, including the cheetah and the endangered wattled crane.
Says Allan Thornton, of Greenpeace International: "We have been overwhelmed by the sentiments expressed by local inhabitants for the survival of the Okavango."
However, the government does not rule out dredging. Says Mogwe: "Government does have to keep the dredging Issue open. If in the end It Is the only option through which government can meet Its obligation to provide water to Maun and communities down the river."
Parts of the Boro River are said to have dried up as a result of dredging by Anglo-American Corporation back in the Fifties. Greenpeace officials met Anglo American Corpora tfon officials to seek an explanation of the impact of their dredging.
Plans to dam the Okavango river and new mining activities In the Makgadlkgadl all contradict government pledges to attract more tourists from abroad
Up to 80,000 tourists visit Botswana each year earning •30-45 million in foreign exchange- —GEMINI NEWS