Lilongwe, March 26, 2015: The Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining have clarified that Kayerekera Uranium Mine Spillage Incident and Radiation Exposure at the mine on January 5, 2015did not cause any harm or damage to water bodies.
In a press statement signed by the Ministry’s, Principal Secretary, Dr. Yanira Ntupanyama states that after the incident, government through the Environmental Affairs Department and central water Laboratory conducted inspections on 8th and 9th January, 2015, where water samples of surrounding water bodies including the Sere River were collected and analyzed on-site to monitor for any possible contamination and it was discovered that all parameters analyzed were within the acceptable levels.
According to Dr Ntupanyama, the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards and guidelines for drinking water stipulate that uranium levels in drinking water should not exceed 0.30mg/l, so the water analysis results indicate the water in Sere River both upstream and downstream have traces of uranium but the levels are acceptable.
“For example in North Rukuru River which is downstream of the mine, uranium levels were 0.027mg/l which is within the WHO standards for drinking water,” reads part of it.
It further indicates that the company responsible Paladin Africa has worked with Government in ensuring that they safeguard human health and the environment by accepting governments’ recommendations to see that the incident does not happen again.
Among the conditions is that Paladin should carry out maintenance of the affected tank and ensure that the spill does not occur again, submit a detailed report about the incident and members of the public should be duly engaged and allowed to see for themselves what really happened and measures taken.
On January 5, 2015 at Kayerekera Uranium Mine, some employees of were carrying out some maintenance of the sediment retention tank which contained non-radioactive materials comprising sand, lime and water among other things.
The same day they were heavy rains which affected the tank by causing the inside rubber liner and metal to separate and release the contests in a semi-solid form which spilled into a drift between runoff water pond ii and tailings Storage Facility.
The material which is spilled is estimated at 500 cubic metres which is 10 percent of the total capacity.
