How do current and past mining activities affect water security, health, and economic opportunities? Key takeaways from the UCT-UCR seminar
By Senani Mamba | WPE
This week, we had the privilege of hosting Assoc. Prof. Dr Raymond Frempong from the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL) at the Catholic University of Lille, France. He joined us for an academic discussion on his co-authored paper, How do current and past mining activities affect water security, health, and economic opportunities? (Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 2025).
The session explored the paper's findings, which investigate the effects of mining on health, income, and water deprivation in Africa. By combining household data with mining locations, the authors conducted an econometric analysis to assess the impact of mining on self-reported water security, health, and economic opportunities for 142,838 households.
Key takeaways:
- The paper shows that sustainable development in mining regions depends critically on governance, regulation, and long-term planning, not just the extraction of the resource.
- The study adopts a micro-econometric approach by using self-reported measures of deprivation using a linear probability model with households and community controls, where the inclusion of fixed effects controls for country-level differences and time-specific shocks using data taken from Afrobarometer. To solve endogeneity, the authors used mineral deposits as an instrument for mining activity.
- Results from the paper show that within a 50 km radius of active mines, households are less likely to experience water insecurity.
After the presentation, the Q&A session opened with questions and comments on how the quality and quantity of water were measured, and the level of pollutants in the water consumed to control for the impact of mines. Some other members of the audience highlighted different experiences in mining areas in South Africa, where a focus on quantity and quality aspects must be looked into, as well as pollution (acid from the mines), with questions such as: Is the water quality safe for drinking in these areas? Improving local governance to influence the institutional arrangement of water allocation was also highlighted as a solution to water allocation and improving water quality.
This presentation is part of the UCT-UCR Seminar Series: Water Economics and Politics, a joint initiative between the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of California, Riverside (UCR). About this presentation: How do current and past mining activities affect water security, health, and economic opportunities?