Mark Olalde revisits the fracking debate, and finds both sides digging in for a protracted fight as legislation and the benefits of shale gas mining become murkier An ostrich walks through the Karoo National Park near Beaufort West. Environmental activists and Karoo residents fear fracking will bring problems of air and water pollution, as it has elsewhere around the world. Photos by Mark Olalde Jonathan Deal tries to recall the countless interviews he has given, statements made and meetings attended since he waded into the battle over hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, five years ago. He stumbled into the fight after calling in to a radio talk show to discuss why he felt fracking was a bad idea. That same week, in early 2011, he created an anti-fracking Facebook page that now has close to 13,000 members. Deal quickly became the face of the anti-fracking movement in South Africa after he started the Treasure Karoo Action Group, and in 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his work. “In a short space of time, I found myself at the thin end of the wedge,” he says. The wedge is fighting to keep fracking out of the Karoo, the semi-arid region spanning 380,000 square kilometres where Royal Dutch Shell, Falcon Oil and Gas in partnership with Chevron and Bundu Gas and Oil Exploration, owned by Challenger Energy, applied for permits in 2010. Initially hailed as a potential saviour to South Africa’s economic and energy woes, fracking instead stalled as it met opposition from environmentalists and communities across the Karoo. Confidence in fracking’s feasability in the Karoo has since declined. On May 11 2016, at a conference on unconventional gas, the Council for Geoscience cited new evidence from two boreholes showing the presence of economically recoverable shale gas was questionable. (See “Early drill results make presence of Karoo gas questionable“.) In mid-May 2016, the Treasure Karoo Action Group was joined by other civil rights organisations in submitting a petition to Parliament calling for stringent regulations governing fracking. Both sides of the debate have now dug in for an extended fight. Falling commodity prices, the lack of exploratory permits and ongoing environmental research throw the future of fracking in the Karoo into question. Fracking is a process of extracting gas from rock several kilometres underground by creating fractures and pumping in a high-pressure cocktail of water, sand and chemical additives. The end result is natural gas flowing to the surface, but not without major environmental risks. Anti-fracking activist Jonathan Deal at his property in the Karoo. He won the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize for his fight to preserve the semi-arid region Dickie Ogilvie, a sheep farmer and head of the Aberdeen Farmers Association, is one of the Karoo residents feeling threatened by the spectre of fracking. He fears for his livelihood in the case of chemicals or gas contaminating the aquifers sustaining his town and livestock. “Our huge concern regarding fracking is the possible problems associated with our underground waters,” Ogilvie said. “All the drinking water, whether it’s for domestic use or stock use, is underground water.” David Fig researches fracking from his various positions at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand. According to his work, fracking a single well would consume at least 20 million litres of water, the equivalent of eight Olympic-size swimming pools. If fracking proceeds in South Africa, hundreds if not thousands of wells could be used. “[The Karoo] is a thirsty area, semi-arid and very much reliant on its aquifers for all economic activity,” Fig said. About 93% of the Karoo’s municipalities rely on aquifers for water. In dry years Beaufort West and other towns in the Karoo have resorted to appealing to travellers for donations of bottled water. According to Fig, 30% of the water used in fracking will remain underground, and there have been cases of fracking contaminating underground water sources in other countries. Fracking also threatens habitat destruction. Although dry, the Karoo is extraordinarily biodiverse and is home to more than 6,000 plant species, at least 40% of which are endemic. The area on which Shell, Falcon and Challenger applied to frack covers roughly 123,500 square kilometres of Karoo habitat. Fracking has also been linked to induced seismic activity. According to the US Geological Survey, earthquakes of magnitude three or higher occur at least five times as often in parts of the US as they did prior to 2008. Research linked much of this activity to injecting fluid deep underground, a disposal method often used in fracking.