Mining: socioeconomic effects and its effect on air, land and water

Introduction

Mining supplies the coal, metals and stone on which industry depends, so it is hard to do without. Mining operations are also regarded as one of the main sources of environmental degradation, and the people living near mines often bear the cost.

Socioeconomic effects

• Income and industry. Mineral belts draw whole industries. The Chhotanagpur belt supplies 60 per cent of the coal India consumes, and coal-based industries of every kind have grown around it, bringing work and income.
• Occupational hazards. Mining is hazardous work. Rock and roof falls, flooding and poor ventilation are the main dangers in underground mines, and explosions have killed many miners; surface mining is less hazardous than underground, and metal mining less than coal.
• Long-term illness. Mine dust causes the lung disease called black lung (pneumoconiosis), and radiation is a hazard in uranium mines.
• Displacement. Projects planned in forest areas can displace thousands of tribal people who lose their homes, and such suffering rarely has a satisfactory answer.
• Conflict over resources. At Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, forest land was denotified and leased for mining; local people fought the mining lobby and filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court in 1991.

Effects on air

Dust from mining operations is released directly into the air breathed by workers, and fumes from incompletely exploded dynamite are extremely poisonous. Methane also escapes from coal strata; it is a health hazard though not poisonous at the concentrations usually found in mine air. Waste from associated industry adds further air pollution.

Effects on land

Mining uses up available land, and land is further lost to waste and conversion to industry, while industrial wastes pollute it. At Sariska, as many as 70 mines operate close to the forest, which shows how a mine's footprint spreads into protected land.

Effects on water

Water is polluted by industrial wastes that accompany mining. The Damodar river is the clearest Indian case: it flows through one of the richest mineral belts in the world, and coal-based industries there discharge fine coal particles and oil into it.

Conclusion

Mining brings income but leaves its costs on workers, displaced communities and on the region's air, land and water. Safe practice, strict pollution control and real consent of those affected are needed if its benefits are to outweigh those costs.