CSOs, environmental conservationists in Tanzania say country not ready for uranium mine
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), wildlife and environmental conservationists in Tanzania are strongly resisting attempts for uranium mine set to begin production of the radioactive material near the Eastern African country’s Selous Game Reserve.
Although developers of the mine are saying the project has the potential to create more jobs and indirect cash inflows, major CSOs in the country said Tanzania is not ready for the project.
The Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered that the Russian state-owned atomic agency (Rosatom) and Australian-based Mantra limited are jointly developing the project, which according to promoters create more than 1,600 direct jobs and indirect cash inflows of $640 million in the country.
Mrs Grace Masalakulangwa, the National Coordinator, Interfaith Standing Committee on Economic Justice and Integrity of Creation in Tanzania told our correspondent that “Tanzania is not ready to mine uranium”.
She told the GNA on the sidelines of a 14-day regional training course on oil, gas and mining underway in Dar es Salaam the country had little knowledge on the sector and needed strong legal framework to get better negotiation deal.
The training course is being organized by the Journalists Environmental Association of Tazania, in collaboration with Penplusbytes, International ICT Journalism in Ghana and the Africa Media for Excellence in Uganda with funding from the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).
Twenty-four Journalists eight from Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania are attending the course.
Mrs Masalakulangwa observed that without robust national policy in the sector, the disadvantages of the mine would outweigh the benefits.
She pointed out that many companies in the extractive sector in the country had failed the people, with most of the failing to fulfill their promises and social responsibility programmes.
“If there is no legal framework to guide us in the negotiation table our country is going to lose a lot because uranium mine is a new area and this can lead to chaos”, Mr Dennis Mwendwa the Chairperson of the Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Association (ONGEA) in Tanzania stated.
He said the interest of the people of Tanzania ought to be protected and the CSOs would leave no stone unturned to achieve that.
Source: GNA