Abstract
This paper examines the issue of acid mine drainage in South Africa and environmental decision making processes that could be taken to mitigate the problem in the context of both conventional risk assessment and the precautionary principle. It is argued that conventional risk assessment protects the status quo and hence cannot be entirely relied upon as an effective tool to resolve environmental problems in the context of South Africa, a developing country with complex environmental health concerns. The complexity of the environmental issues is discussed from historical and political perspectives. An argument is subsequently made that the precautionary principle is an alternative tool, and its adoption can be used to empower local communities. This work, therefore, adds to new knowledge by problematising conventional risk assessment and proposing the framing of the acid mine drainage issues in a complex and contextual scenario of a developing country—South Africa.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Of course, this type of sampling and analysis should be done in all cases of mining activities already in operation.
References
Adler, R. A., Claassen, M., Godfrey, L., & Turton, A. R. (2007). Water, mining, and waste: An historical and economic perspective on conflict management in South Africa. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 2(2), 32–41.
Carolan, M. S. (2007). The precautionary principle and traditional risk assessment: Rethinking how we assess and mitigate environmental threats. Organization & Environment, 20(1), 5–24. doi:10.1177/1086026607300319.
Conary, J. S., Soden, D. L., & Cams, D. (1996). Science as reflected in public images: Nuclear issues and symbolism. In D. Soden & B. R. Steel (Eds.), At the Nexus: Science and public policy. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Dixon, M., & Oyebode, F. (2007). Uncertainty and risk assessment. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 13(1), 70–78.
Failing, L., Gregory, R., & Harstone, M. (2007). Integrating science and local knowledge in environmental risk management: A decision-focused approach. Ecological Economics, 64(1), 47–60.
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2008). Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Wiley.
Goolam, N. (2000). Recent environmental legislation in South Africa. Journal of African Law, 44(1), 124–128.
Gonçalves, M. E. (2006). Transparency, openness and participation in science policy processes. In A. Guimarães Pereira, S. Guedes Vaz & S. Tognetti (Eds.), Interfaces between Science and Society (pp. 176–184). Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
Gray, J. S., & Bewers, J. M. (1996). Towards A scientific definition of the precautionary principle. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 32(11), 768–771.
Green, L. J. F. (2012). Beyond South Africa’s indigenous knowledge-science wars. South African Journal of Science, 108(7–8), 44–54.
Humby, T.-L. (2013). Environmental justice and human rights on the mining wastelands of the Witwatersrand gold fields. Revue General, 43, 67.
Kaszuba, M. (2002). Implementing the precautionary principle. Science of the Total Environment, 288(1), 155–165.
Kruger, F., Van Wilgen, B., Weaver, A., & Greyling, T. (1997). Sustainable development and the environment: Lessons from the St Lucia environmental impact assessment. South African Journal of Science, 93, 23–33.
Lempert, R. J., & Collins, M. T. (2007). Managing the risk of uncertain threshold responses: Comparison of robust, optimum, and precautionary approaches. Risk Analysis, 27(4), 1009–1026.
McCall, L. (2000). Explaining levels of within-group wage inequality in US labor markets. Demography, 37(4), 415–430.
McCarthy, T. S. (2011). The impact of acid mine drainage in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 107(5–6), 01–07.
Mercer, J., Dominey-Howes, D., Kelman, I., & Lloyd, K. (2007). The potential for combining indigenous and western knowledge in reducing vulnerability to environmental hazards in small island developing states. Environmental Hazards, 7(4), 245–256.
Mining Review Africa. (2015). Government launches R12 billion acid mine drainage long-term solution project. Retrieved from https://www.miningreview.com/news/government-launches-r12b-acid-mine-drainage-long-term-solution-project/.
Mining Weekly. (2015). New highly profitable acid mine water solution unveiled. Retrieved from http://www.miningweekly.com/article/new-highly-profitable-acid-mine-water-solution-unveiled-2016-05-24.
Morton, A., & Routledge, R. (2016). Risk and precaution: Salmon farming. Marine Policy, 74, 205–212.
Naidoo, S. (2014). Development actors and the issues of acid mine drainage in the Vaal River system. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=hWzmoQEACAAJ.
Oreskes, N. (2004). The scientific consensus on climate change. Science, 306(5702), 1686.
Peel, J. (2005). The precautionary principle in practice: Environmental decision-making and scientific uncertainty. Leichhardt, NSW: Federation Press.
Peterson, D. C. (2006). Precaution: Principles and practice in Australian environmental and natural resource management. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 50(4), 469–489.
Pick, E. (2001). Science is universal, not part of any religion. Nature, 414(6861), 249.
Ramphele, M. (1991). Environment and change in post-apartheid South Africa. London: Panos.
Reed, M. S. (2008). Stakeholder participation for environmental management: A literature review. Biological Conservation, 141(10), 2417–2431.
Renn, O. (2007). Precaution and analysis: Two sides of the same coin? EMBO Reports, 8(4), 303–304.
Sahoo, P. K., Kim, K., Equeenuddin, S. M., & Powell, M. A. (2013). Current approaches for mitigating acid mine drainage. In P. de Voogt (Ed.), Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology (Vol. 226, pp. 1–32). Berlin: Springer.
Simate, G. S., & Ndlovu, S. (2014). Acid mine drainage: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2(3), 1785–1803.
Staver, J. R. (1998). Constructivism: Sound theory for explicating the practice of science and science teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35(5), 501–520.
Stirling, A. (2007). Risk, precaution and science: Towards a more constructive policy debate. EMBO Reports, 8(4), 309–315.
Stirling, A., & Gee, D. (2002). Science, precaution, and practice. Public Health Reports, 117(6), 521.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. (1996). The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf.
Todt, O., & Luján, J. L. (2014). Analyzing precautionary regulation: Do precaution, science, and innovation go together? Risk Analysis, 34(12), 2163–2173.
Vermeule, A. (2012). Precautionary principles in constitutional law. Journal of Legal Analysis, 4(1), 181–222.
Wickson, F. (2005). Environmental decision making: Emerging conceptualisations of uncertainty and precaution. Faculty of law, Humanities and the Arts Papers. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2666&context=artspapers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Morodi, T.J., Mpofu, C. Environmental Decision Making on Acid Mine Drainage Issues in South Africa: An Argument for the Precautionary Principle. Sci Eng Ethics 24, 1181–1199 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9933-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9933-z