Competition for Land: The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Coal Mining in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Abstract

The Mpumalanga Province is a key source of South Africa's coal supply with over 60% of the province's surface area either being subject to mining rights or prospecting applications. Mpumalanga also possesses almost half of the country's high potential arable land. While South Africa is currently largely self-sufficient in terms of cereal grains, what this assessment of Mpumalanga highlights is that food security is increasingly being threatened by coal mining interests that serve the nation's energy needs. Water availability and quality for mining, agriculture and energy production in this province are also becoming increasingly strained. The water quality deterioration generally results from either acid mine drainage (AMD) or contaminated runoff from mines and agricultural lands. This assessment of Mpumalanga highlights the interconnectedness of energy, food, and water security, with their resultant trade-offs. The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus provides a focussed lens through which to evaluate resource security in a holistic manner. Only once regulators, NGOs, industry, and the public view the resource security challenges in Mpumalanga in an integrated manner can planning and policies that lead to sustainable development be advanced, and objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be achieved. There is, therefore, a need for WEF nexus science and data to influence integrated public policy within this province.

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index: A Tool for Integrated Resource Management and Sustainable Development

“…Trade-offs associated with fossil-fuel-based energy security (and the associated coal mines) in South Africa include, inter alia, human health, air pollution, water pollution, loss of high-potential agricultural land and loss of biodiversity (Colvin et al 2011, BFAP 2012, Lodewijks et al 2013, CER 2016, Solomons 2016, CER 2018, Forrest and Loate 2018, Greenpeace 2018, CER 2019, Fleming 2019, Simpson et al 2019. A crucial consideration in integrated resource management is that the attainment of resource security for one sector should not compromise an interdependent sector (Simpson and Berchner 2017).…”

“…For national government, who must wear many 'hats', they are often 'between a rock and a hard place', This is because there are conflicting trade-offs associated with an accelerated transition to a low-carbon economy. These include sector-related jobs (as well as secondary and tertiary employment spawned by the coal and power industries) and export revenue (Delport et al 2015, Webb 2015, Simpson et al 2019.…”

“…Traditionally, South Africa was a nett exporter of food, but it has recently become a nett importer due to agricultural production not increasing at the same rate as population growth (Bazilian et al 2011). Food production could be further jeopardised by the loss of high potential agricultural land due to mining and urbanisation, particularly in the province of Mpumalanga (Simpson et al 2019). Alarmingly, the lowest ranking sub-pillar is the food-availability sub-pillar, with a value of 40.5.…”

Environmental Services: A New Approach Toward Addressing Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Food-energy-water Ozturk, 2017;Zaman et al, 2017;Mabhaudhi et al, 2018Mabhaudhi et al, , 2019Mpandeli et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018;Sahle et al, 2019;Simpson et al, 2019;Nhamo et al, 2020a,b;Bellezoni et al, 2021;Yuan et al, 2021 Water-energy-food-climate King and Jaafar, 2015 Items of these nexuses that are specifically mentioned in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals are listed in italics.…”

“…Further, this highlights the problems of enacting seemingly-simple management decisions when also set against such naïve and poorly-defined statements as "end hunger, achieve food security" of SDG 2, for example. This means that many nexus studies only describe broad and generalized relationships with respect to SDGs (Ololade, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018;Simpson et al, 2019), and lack specific and evidence-based scientific detail that is set in a theoretical context (Graham and Ernstson, 2012). To address this, the theoretical context of environmental services is now proposed as a way to better understand the co-relationships of different physical and human elements, as described in nexus studies.…”