Fisheries workers at Walvis Bay and Lüderitz in Namibia say they might lose their jobs if the government allows marine phosphate mining.
There are about 15 000 people working in the fisheries sector in Namibia.
More than 500 of the mostly women working in the land-based factories handed over a petition to the environment ministry at Walvis Bay on Thursday.
The petition was received by the Erongo governor’s special adviser, Adelaide Kandjala, for President Hage Geingob’s attention.
There are two companies Namibia Marine Phosphates (NMP) and LLNP which have applied for licences to mine phosphate at Walvis Bay and Lüderitz, respectively. The environment ministry will decide whether or not to clear the companies.
In the petition, the workers said more than half of the jobs in the fishing industry are in onshore processing plants, where mostly women are employed.
Furthermore, the petition said, there are also a lot of indirect jobs generated by the fishing industry.
Should the fishing industry suffer due to the marine phosphate mining hurting the marine environment, it won’t only be the coastal towns which will be seriously negatively effected; it will also be our families throughout the country, the petition further read. The petition re-emphasised the importance of proper scientific research to ensure that phosphate mining will not harm marine resources.
Talking to The Namibian, most of the demonstrators who declined to give their names, said phosphate would destroy jobs and companies.
A Tunacor factory worker asked: What will I do? What will happen to my children?
Another one said: If there is no fish, there is no work. Government cannot allow that. There are more people working here in the fishing industry than what the phosphate mines will employ. Although there has been a report compiled on the effects of phosphate mining, the workers said they do not know its contents.
All we hear is that you can see the reports at the government departments in Windhoek. That is far for us to go. Why won’t they show us the report? All this makes us worried that they are hiding something from us, states the petition. NMP is adamant that the findings of expensive studies it has undertaken prove that everything points to a minimal impact of the proposed operation.
The Namibian reported in July that the absence of a decision on whether to allow or to disallow phosphate mining in Namibia has frustrated economic planning minister Tom Alweendo, who believes it will be a blessing for the country.
2015 The Namibian