Lecture 10: Resource governance in a mineral rush Flashcards
(7 cards)
Congo: country built on extraction
- Built on extraction: slave trade → colonial rush → corruption, war
- Mineral-rich but extremely poor
- Issues: low value addition, high social/environmental cost
- Water used as proxy for sustainability
Why Water? - Humans need water to survive (3 days limit)
- Access is not binary: quality, distance, control matter
- Settlements form near water bodies, but who controls it?
- Water = power; 4 key water challenges in mining areas: Availability, Access, Quality, Sustainability
Southern DRC region
- 100 years of mining, major GDP source
- Dominated by industrial money
- Political instability: separatism, xenophobia (esp. against Kasai migrants)
Hindrance Factors - Population growth + climate stress = water scarcity
- Demographic shifts are complex and uneven
- Social divides (race, class, ethnicity) shape access
- Poor assessments, local knowledge often ignored
Urbanization and environment
Urbanisation and environment in DRC
VLIR TEAM Project (2022–2027)
* Protect labour across supply chains (men and women)
* Safeguard environments around mining and transport
* Promote sustainable, inclusive construction
Urban Growth & Weak Governance
* Fast population growth → need for housing & infrastructure
* N vs S: different transitions, weak institutional capacity in South
Construction Material Impacts
* Sand/gravel = 2nd most used resources (after water)
* Use exceeds renewal → pollution, land change, biodiversity loss
* Impacts stretch across full life cycle: extraction → demolition
Emissions from Buildings
* Construction = 37% global GHG
* Materials like cement, steel, aluminium = high footprint
* Embodied emissions mitigation still lagging
Life Cycle Impacts
* Inputs: energy, materials, water
* Outputs: CO₂, SO₂, CH₄, heavy metals, acidification, health damage
Study 1: environmental cost Construction Sector
- Methods: LCA, environmental impact assessment, stakeholder surveys
- Assessed: material consumption, governance, perceptions
Study 2: water pollution from sand mining
- Urban growth triples global sand demand (50B tons/year)
- Methods: geology, river selection, 12-month sampling, lab testing (trace metals)
Impacts: - Physical: erosion, sediment loss, flow change
- Chemical: turbidity, heavy metals, pollution
- Biological: habitat loss, species decline
- Anthropogenic: diseases, poor labour, land loss
Study 3: Urbanisation and surface water pollution
- Single buildings = minor; combined urbanisation = major pollution
- Insufficient regulation
- PFAS + trace metals tested in water and fish
Study 4: Sustainable urban planning
- Transition from linear to circular urban systems
- Integrating other solutions
- How can planning reduce construction footprint?
- How to mitigate urban pollution?
- What policies ensure resilience & sustainability?
Methods: spatial modelling, growth indicators
