{"id":14503,"date":"2012-09-12T04:15:07","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T02:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/s-africa-may-halt-shale-gas-work-if-it-pollutes-water-minister\/"},"modified":"2012-09-12T04:15:07","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T02:15:07","slug":"s-africa-may-halt-shale-gas-work-if-it-pollutes-water-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-may-halt-shale-gas-work-if-it-pollutes-water-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa may halt shale gas work if it pollutes water -minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

CAPE TOWN, Sept 11<\/span> (Reuters) – Evidence of water
\ncontamination would be grounds for South Africa to halt
\nexploration for shale gas in its semi-arid Karoo region, the
\nmines minister said, addressing fears its decision to develop
\nthe abundant resource could harm the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa, seeing prospects for a major boost to its
\neconomy, last week lifted a ban on shale gas exploration in the
\nKaroo, which contains some of the world’s biggest reserves of
\nthe energy source.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision aroused criticism from environmentalists who
\nsay water supplies will be polluted by the extraction technique
\nof hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, in which pressurised
\nwater, chemicals and sand are pumped underground to release gas
\ntrapped in shale formations.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The government said in a report released on Tuesday that
\nother concerns included the amount of water required for
\nfracking, as water is scarce in the Karoo.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The sparsely-populated Karoo is renowned for sheep farming
\nand home to rare species such as the mountain zebra and riverine
\nrabbit, placing it firmly in the sight of conservationists.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“If the process is such that there is a threat to water in
\nSouth Africa we will have to stop the process,” Mineral
\nResources Minister Susan Shabangu told journalists on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The government report said hydrological studies would be
\nconducted to minimise potential impacts on other users.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The studies would also examine whether fracking would cause
\nexcessive dust that could disable the “Square Kilometre Array”
\n(SKA) telescope, which will be located in the same area.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa in May won the rights to host the $2 billion
\nradio telescope, the world’s biggest, along with Australia and
\nNew Zealand.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“If there is going to be a negative impact on the SKA which
\ncannot be mitigated, we may have to halt the process,” Shabangu
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

According to an initial study by the U.S. Energy Information
\nAdministration, South Africa has 485 trillion cubic feet (TCF)
\nof technically recoverable shale gas resources, most of which
\nare located in the Karoo Basin.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Agnieszka Flak and
\nAnthony Barker)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAPE TOWN, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Evidence of water contamination would be grounds for South Africa to halt exploration for shale gas in its semi-arid Karoo region, the mines minister said, addressing fears its decision to develop the abundant resource could harm the environment. South Africa, seeing prospects for a major boost to its economy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}