On The Menu: Karoo Lamb - or Karoo Gas?

By Julienne du Toit

Many assume that development always means jobs. But in the case of the Karoo Gas exploration, that could mean the exact opposite.

Contaminated Meat

Professor Gary Stevens, a geochemist from Stellenbosch University, has pointed out that the famous Karoo lamb might become dangerous to eat if gas mining contaminates the groundwater with dangerous chemicals.

Even one bad contamination incident could cause people to stop buying Karoo lamb. In a worst case scenario, contaminated meat could put thousands of farmworkers and farmers at risk of job-loss and disease.

The chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for gas are often toxic to humans and animals. In America, where this kind of fracking has been practised for more than 10 years, there are thousands of recorded incidents of water contamination from the gas fracking industry, and diseases caused in humans and animals.

Professor Stevens explained further. “Chemicals can travel long distances through groundwater, which flows very much like a river underground.

“The water always flows most strongly to a point of extraction, for example a windpump.

Could cause cancer

“If animals drink contaminated water, even at low concentrations, the harmful substances can build up to higher levels in their flesh. It’s called bio-accumulation. Humans eating this meat could be consuming these harmful substances at dangerous levels.”

The chemicals used in the process are sometimes undetectable in water. They can be colourless, odourless and tasteless, but even at low concentrations they can cause cancer and other health problems.

There is a lot of money at stake too. Professor Johann Kirsten of the University of Pretoria’s Department of Agricultural Economics says the sale of Karoo lamb alone is worth at least R1.5 billion a year. That number could rise as it becomes a more recognised and sought-after brand.

The sale of wool is worth R660 million a year, and mohair generates about R214 million a year.

Radioactive water

Apart from any chemicals that might be used, the waste water is likely to come into contact with the Karoo’s underground uranium ore, which means the water could also become radioactive, and even more of a health hazard.

This too has happened in America, as a recent exposé by the New York Times has shown.

Figures for other Karoo industries like venison sales, dairy, lucerne, pecan nuts and maize – all cultivated in the Karoo – are not readily available, nor are figures on the growing tourism industry.

But all these industries depend on clean water.

It is also possible that Fish and the Sundays Rivers, both of which rise near Graaff-Reinet, could be contaminated, which would have grave repercussions for the Sundays River citrus export industry, and the Fish River irrigation farmers.