{"id":6292,"date":"2024-12-04T02:27:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T02:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2024-12-04T02:27:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T02:27:47","slug":"is-russia-poisoning-namibias-water-in-its-hunt-for-uranium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2024\/12\/04\/is-russia-poisoning-namibias-water-in-its-hunt-for-uranium\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Russia Poisoning Namibia’s Water in its Hunt for Uranium?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2024\/11\/27\/russia-woos-namibia-to-mine-uranium-sparking-water-safety-fears<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The village of Leonardville in Namibia sits above one of the world\u2019s largest aquifers. The aquifer below Leonardville is the village’s lifeline, as Namibia is becoming hotter and drier every year due to climate change. In 2017, the country lifted a temporary uranium mining ban. Since then, Russia, through a sub-company of Russia\u2019s ROSATOM, (Russia\u2019s State Atomic Energy Corporation), Headspring investments has been drilling for uranium. The method in which Russia is drilling, however, is controversial. Not only does this uranium fuel the most powerful nuclear industry in the world, it could be poisoning the people of Leonardville. The method that Russia is using is called \u201cin situ\u201d, where an injection containing sulphuric acid, which is very toxic to the human body, is injected into a point of the aquifer in order to bring up uranium. Additionally, as the uranium needs to be cooled, water from the aquifer is also being extracted. Among these concerns, Al Jazeera has found that Russia has been campaigning in Namibia for diplomacy between the two countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia has been spreading its influence in Africa as of late so it\u2019s no surprise that as Namibia is a very large uranium supplier to Russia, it\u2019s campaigning there too. Though, unlike Rwanda or Guinea, it is unlikely that Namibia will jump to support Russia from health concerns. Though no health study has been conducted it is very possible they are poisoning the people of Namibia and depleting their water supply. If this continues this could make uranium rich parts of Namibia inhospitable. Though Namibia doesn\u2019t have many economic exports besides uranium, which is taken by Russia, they need the money Russia is giving them to mine. Though in all likelihood they will favor the health of their people over money, and try to find a different state to offer uranium, with a different mining method of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an issue of national interest for Namibia, in terms of economy, welfare, and security. On the economic side of things, they need the money from Russia because they give them the space to mine and take the uranium that sits under Leonardville. From a welfare perspective, the people of Namibia where mining is taking place could be being poisoned by the water they\u2019re drinking. Finally, from a security standpoint, this could go either way. Should Russia win against Ukraine, Namibia will want to be on their good side, and keep ties. Though in the event that Ukraine is victorious, it is likely that Namibia will cut ties with Russia for the welfare of their people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2024\/11\/27\/russia-woos-namibia-to-mine-uranium-sparking-water-safety-fears The village of Leonardville in Namibia sits above one of the world\u2019s largest aquifers. The aquifer below Leonardville is the village’s lifeline, as Namibia is becoming hotter and drier every year due to climate change. In 2017, the country lifted a temporary uranium mining ban. Since then, Russia, through a sub-company of Russia\u2019s ROSATOM, (Russia\u2019s State Atomic Energy Corporation),… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6293,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions\/6293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}