Anti-shale gas lobby groups, AfriForum and Treasure Karoo Action Group, have welcomed the latest joint report on hydraulic fracturing.
According to them the report concludes that South Africa is far from ready to take any decision on whether to frack or not.
The Strategic Environmental Assessment was recently released by the CSIR, the SA National Biodiversity Institute and the Council for Geoscience.
Jonathan Deal, of the Treasure Karoo Action Group, says the latest report comes on the heels of a similar finding by the Academy of Science of South Africa.
He said the reports are further vindication of their concerns about the impact of fracking.
“Coming on the heels of the ASSAF (Academy of Science of South Africa) report, the SEA is in our view a further vindication of the concerns raised by the Alliance since 2011. TKAG and AfriForum are in broad terms most satisfied with the scientific integrity of the report. In the main, the tone of the findings is cautious and very honest about unknown risk accumulation and the unpreparedness of South Africa in technical, legislative, monitoring and infrastructure terms, to manage an activity such as shale gas development (SGD).”
“The findings in many instances, dovetail with those of the ASSAF scientists,” Deal said.
Head of Local Government Affairs and Environmental Affairs for AfriForum, Marcus Pawson pointed out that the report’s finding around jobs would be of great interest to South Africans.
The report found specifically that: ‘The Big Gas scenario would be associated with approximately 2 575 direct operational jobs in drilling, trucking and power generation with residents of the study area probably able to fill 15% to 35% of these positions initially, increasing over time as training proceeds.’
“Here at last is a science-based finding from local experts, and reviewed by international experts, and in our view it makes a mockery of the 700 000 jobs touted by Shell and President Zuma,” he said.
