With South Africa poised to open the way for shale gas exploration, it was interesting to gain insight into the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) from UK special representative on climate change Sir David King.

King, who was born in Durban in 1939 and educated in Johannesburg at the University of the Witwatersrand before advancing his academic career in the UK, was appointed to his current position in September last year by British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

However, prior to taking up the post – an appointment that he admits came as a surprise, owing to the fact that he had served as the chief scientific adviser to Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – King chaired an initiative known as ‘ReFINE’, which stands for Researching Fracking in Europe.

While he was studying fracking, some important risks became apparent, from water and chemicals through to the treatment of radioactive sludge and logistics.

A key risk for King is that there is radioactive material at depths of between 1 000 m and 4 000 m – the typical depth at which fracking takes place. “When the water upwells after the fracking process, it contains radioactive sludge and a good proportion of the ten tons of chemicals used in the fracking well.” The contaminated water has to be treated.

In the UK, regulations are being introduced to ensure that the water is placed into sealed containers and then purified before disposal. King believes open ponds contained using membranes to be inadequate.

Methane leakage is another factor that has to be monitored and dealt with “responsibly”. But he sees seismic activity as less of a problem, as geological information is available showing up areas where fracking should not be pursued. Yet, if fracking does take place in an inappropriate area, earthquakes will result.

But King’s biggest take-away point is that “you cannot consider fracking in a water-stressed area”.

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