Abstract
Lack of government intervention in South Africa's mining industry has worsened conflicts associated with limited water resources. With the advent of democracy, new legislation demands that all South African citizens have the right to a clean, safe environment, including access to potable water, and that the country develop in a sustainable manner. But conflict remains due to the historical partnership between the government and the mining industry, as well as due to cumulative impacts associated with mining, which has polluted natural ground water sources. In this article, an historical overview of the mining industry in South Africa is presented, along with a simple economic model to describe behavior of the mining industry over time. Legislative frameworks used to address mine waste and mine water management are evaluated and suggestions are made for how to use an understanding of resource driven conflict to improve the outlook of mining and access to water for all in South Africa.
Highlights
Limited water resources have been a source of international conflict for centuries, often as part of wider religious, ideological, political, or economic challenges
Until existing legislation can be enforced in a logical, organized fashion at all levels, and until the various government departments can learn how to coordinate with one another to maximize overall efficiency, conflict arising from the lack of government enforcement of current policies and their cumulative impacts will persist in South Africa
Existing frameworks place government in a reactive position. This is evident in the pricing structures and enforcement mechanisms used to discourage pollution using the polluter-pays principle (PPP), in the legal framework which outlines requirements for environmental impact assessments (EIAs), and in the disagreement about key terms that must be understood for policy enforcement
Summary
Mine owners took advantage of weak governmental regulation by externalizing costs. According to elementary microeconomic theory, a firm maximizes profit by producing output so long as its marginal private benefit exceeds its marginal private cost. The third curve, the Environmental and Social Remediation Curve (ESRC), represents the costs associated with rehabilitation of mining operations after decommissioning, including the cost to human and environmental health and the social legacy of people employed, supported, and attracted to the mine and its surrounding areas. This factors in impacts on affected populations that live off-mine, something that is never brought onto any balance sheet.
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