Baseline study in Botswana

ECOSERV rises to the challenge of working in rugged conditions

When ECOSERV MD Quentin Hurt and consultant Mia Antoni visit Botswana to manage an air quality monitoring study for a proposed coal mine and power station, things are different from the average project .

When setting up the project the team had to drive 2500km on potholed roads to reach their remote bush camp; they slept in tents and were lucky to get a warm shower at the end of the day. And yet they are incredibly excited about the contract.

“It is a very important project for us because it furthers our platform of work to the north of us,” says Mia. “This is the first contract with Meephong Resources.”

ECOSERV has been contracted to do a baseline air quality study by Airshed for Meephong Resources, a consortium of investors from Botswana. The study of dust, sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) will contribute to the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) that is necessary before the development in the Mmamabula region, in southern Botwsana, can proceed.

“Meephong is currently doing coal core drilling to see whether the coal mine is viable. In order for us to measure the impact the mine and power station will have on the four surrounding villages, and to know if remedial action is necessary, we need to know what the pollution was like before the mine.”

The first step for Mia and Quentin was to meet every village chief and policewomen to get approval for monitoring stations. The second step was to put up a full, solar-powered weather station at the exploration camp, to log wind speed and direction, relative humidity, solar radiation and rainfall.

Once the station was up and running, from September 2006, data from the weather station could be downloaded remotely by a cell phone simcard, and is hosted on a website. The weather station supplies Mia with a continuous dust pm10 monitor and dust scan count and passive samples at the four villages give her baseline assessments of SO₂ and NO₂.

“Pollution levels in the area are low – which was to be expected, considering that this is a rural area with no major pollution sources.”

It is encouraging for Ecoserv to be involved in a project whereby the client is undertaking monitoring prior to beginning of mining activities. In many cases environmental monitoring is only initiated after operation has commenced and with no idea of prior pollution levels it is hard to establish the impact of the industry without knowing pollution levels prior to operation.

In this case Meephong will have a comprehensive dataset and will be able monitor and track the impact of the industry on the surrounding areas for the during of mining operations. Quentin noted that, “It's good to work with a committed client that understands the value of good environmental data. This is likely to be a good project to be associated with based on the degree of interest in the air quality data. It indicates to me that we are dealing with a responsible client that understands the significance of its operations to the local environment.”

Mia visits Mmamabula once a month to deploy passive samples and service equipment. Mia now confidently embarks on the rugged expeditions into Botswana on her own – but she is grateful that, for the most part, her visits have been uneventful.