nuclear-news

A legal win for Namibia’s groundwater against uranium mining

issue is the question of who has the legal standing to go to court to ask for protection for the environment, which is unable to speak for itself…plan to extract large quantities of water from an underground water source in such a dry, environmentally sensitive and hitherto unspoilt area.

Uranium company loses desert water plan appeal, the Namibian, 20 May 11, By: WERNER MENGES  A LEGAL challenge to a Canadian-owned mining company’s plan to use underground water to set up a uranium mine in the Namib Desert south-west of Usakos is heading back to the High Court after an appeal judgement that was given in the Supreme Court yesterday.

An issue that has never before had to be decided by a Namibian court is expected to be at the core of the case between uranium rights holder Valencia Uranium and the owner of a farm in the Usakos area, Namib Plains Farming and Tourism CC, when that matter makes its return to the High Court.
That issue is the question of who has the legal standing to go to court to ask for protection for the environment, which is unable to speak for itself…..
In February 2008, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry issued permits to Valencia Uranium that would have allowed it to drill boreholes in the Khan River and extract water from that underground source. According to the company, it was planning to use this source of water while constructing a mine at Valencia.
The members of Namib Plains Farming and Tourism, a close corporation owning farm Namib Plaas near Valencia, were alarmed over this plan to extract large quantities of water from an underground water source in such a dry, environmentally sensitive and hitherto unspoilt area.
Claiming that the water source that was to be used by Valencia Uranium had not been sufficiently researched to safely make a decision to allow it to be used on such a large scale, the farm owners sued the company, Government, the Ministers of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Mines and Energy, and Environment and Tourism, and the owner of farm Valencia in the High Court…..
The farm owners decided to take the High Court judgement on appeal, and by the time the case reached the Supreme Court their lawyers and also Valencia Uranium’s legal counsel agreed that the High Court’s decision was not correct.
The failure to deal with that preliminary point raised before Judge Parker and which he had said would first be decided, was an irregularity, the Supreme Court has now decided in yesterday’s judgement……
Valencia Uranium and the four Government respondents were ordered to pay the farm owners’ costs in the appeal.
Judge of Appeal Gerhard Maritz and Acting Judge of Appeal Johan Strydom agreed with the Chief Justice’s judgement.
the Namibian: Uranium company loses desert water plan appeal

May 21, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Namibia, water