In 2010, the United Nations affirmed the following: “The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.”
In 2015, the General Assembly introduced 17 Sustainable Development Goals (with SDG 6 focusing specifically on water) to improve global sustainability outcomes by 2030.
Today, billions are still living without safe access to drinking water.
It’s our duty to serve the communities we impact in a positive way. A path to achieving that is FutureSmart Mining™, our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining, which includes our Sustainable Mining Plan (SMP), aligned to the UN’s SDGs.
To impact water scarcity on a global level, our ambition is to operate waterless mines in water-scarce areas. We hope to eliminate freshwater usage from mining processes – and to eventually achieve a near-waterless mine – by focusing on the following:
We are working to achieve the 2020 goals detailed in the SMP related to water, as listed below:
Our team from South Africa’s Mafube colliery have devised a way to re-use mine water to grow local crops and improve crop yield for local farmers.
The Mafube team wanted a solution that would efficiently use water and potentially provide employment for local people, including for ex-miners once their site closed.
They collaborated with South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and a local farmer, who planned for a large irrigation framework and pipeline to be installed. Together, they hoped to increase food security, create jobs for the local community, and generate revenue for farmers.
“Part of the idea is to create employment through the whole process while enhancing food security and providing local people with revenue from farming,” says Ritva. “The first maize crop that we had ended up being triple the size of an ordinary one. The farmer who was helping us out on the project was really happy.”
Mine water has great potential for widespread use in agriculture. As a result of the success of the initial crops in Mafube, investigations to see how this project might be able to help other locations are underway.
To find out much more about Anglo American and water, read our latest Sustainability Report.
