SDCEA responds to authorisation for offshore drilling
Due to numerous objections received during the public consultation hearings, including those of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, the granting of an environmental authorisation was repeatedly withheld.
PROTEST calls for an end to KZN offshore drilling for oil and gas have proved futile.
The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has permitted environmental authorisation (EA) to the Italian energy group, Eni, and Sasol Africa (Pty) Ltd to conduct exploratory drilling in the Durban and Zululand basins, covering a total offshore area of more than 4 600 km². The project is part of the government’s Operation Phakisa programme which aims to unlock the economic potential of the country’s oceans by promoting various commercial activities, including gas and oil extraction.
READ: Protest calls for end to KZN offshore drilling
Due to numerous objections received during the public consultation hearings, including those of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, the granting of an environmental authorisation was repeatedly withheld.
Speaking to the SUN, Sherelee Odayar of SDCEA, said that the alliance strongly opposes the DMR’s decision to grant authorisation to the mentioned energy companies to drill for oil and gas in the Indian ocean.
READ: Picketing for environmental and health accountability
“There is no consideration taken into account of how this exploration is going to affect the thousands of subsistence fishers who depend on the ocean for a livelihood, as well people in the tourism and recreation industry whose source of income depends on the ocean. The public participation on the part of the consultant was not adequate as they have failed to inform the entire coastline of KZN. It is evident how oil rigs can have dire consequences on the environment and marine life in the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The ocean belongs to the people of South Africa, therefore we should have a say of what happens to it,” she shared.
Efforts to reach the DMR for comment proved unsuccessful by the time of going to print.
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