The Karoo is a beautiful and mostly unspoilt section of South Africa. It contains many fossils, rare plant species and history. It would be an absolute disaster if we lose these many wonderful things.
The Karoo is mainly inhabited by farmers who has been there for many generations and farm mainly sheep and goat. Their is an abundance of wild life and medicinal plants. It is also known for its aloe plants and aloe farmers, which is used in a variety of everyday products.This is also a very dry region and water is scarce. If fracking is allowed to commence, then the following will happen.
Shale gas extraction requires very significant amounts of water. To carry out all
fracturing operations on a six well pad takes between 54-174million litres of water,
which is equivalent to about 22-69 Olympic size swimming pools of water. If the UK
were to produce 9bcm (billion cubique meters) of shale gas each year for 20 years
this would equate to an average annual water demand of 1300-5600 million litres.
• Very significant amounts of water are required to extract shale gas and this
could put severe pressure on water supplies in areas of drilling.
• The impacts of climate change may further exacerbate this problem
