Botswana Bushmen win right to water
The Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve finally have access to running water after winning a historic legal case against the Botswana government.
Their borehole – which was closed down by the government during forced evictions – has been reinstated after nine years.
The Bushmen, Survival and many other observers believe that the Bushmen were evicted because their land is rich in diamonds.
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| Bushmen at Gope before being evicted. |
Their reserve lies in the middle of the richest diamond-producing area in the world. There is known to be at least one major diamond deposit in the reserve, at a Bushman community called Gope. Many other ‘kimberlites’ (volcanic rock in which diamonds are found) are present in the reserve.
In May 2007 De Beers sold its deposit at Gope to Gem Diamonds, for $34 million. Gem Diamonds’ chief executive called the Gope deposit ‘a problematic asset for De Beers’ because of the Bushmen campaign.
Gem Diamonds has stated publicly that it contains more than $2.2 billion-worth of diamonds (at 2007 prices), and it plans to develop a mine at Gope when economic conditions are favourable. In 2010 Gem increased its estimate of the value of the Gope deposit to $3.3 billion.
The Botswana government has approved the mine, and previously stated that Gem would not be allowed to provide the Bushmen with water. The government has, however, reserved the right to use water boreholes drilled by Gem for wildlife. Gem Diamonds claims that the Bushmen are in favour of the mine, but the Bushmen have had no independent advice on its probable impact.
Other companies are also involved. Petra Diamonds is exploring throughout the reserve and has identified the Gope and Kukama areas as priorities.
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