Shale gas exploration by means of Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking) has been on the South
African (SA) energy agenda since 2010 as a potential alternative energy source to coal
mining. Internationally, the desirability of fracking is debated due to increasing evidence of
the environmental and health risks fracking poses. However, experts favouring fracking
propose this technology as a greener alternative to conventional energy sources such as
coal. Limited scientific evidence is available internationally related to knowledge and risk
perceptions of fracking and evidence is limited to studies conducted in the United States
(US). South African risk perception studies relates to mining, farming, travelling in SA as a
foreigner and sexual behaviour. The president of SA called fracking a ‘Game-Changer’ using
industry jargon in the 2014 presidential address. However, SA has failed to produce
exploration regulations to date despite oil and gas companies pushing their agendas. Public
participation in the process thus far has been limited.
This cross sectional study explored the knowledge, health risk perceptions and information
sources related to fracking amongst 102 Central Karoo residents through a household
survey. Beaufort West municipality was selected as the study site as this is one of the closest
areas to Cape Town demarcated for fracking exploration.
This study found that 40% of Central Karoo residents do not know what fracking is or the
potential risks and benefits thereof. Media is the main information source of 59% of
participants. Only half of participants trust their information sources. Those with more trust
in their information sources perceived fracking as posing a greater risk. In contrast those
believing fracking to pose a low risk were more likely to trust the government and oil and VI
gas companies. More than half of participants (53%) believe that fracking poses an extreme
health risk and 78% thought fracking will harm their health. Most commonly listed causes
why fracking will make Karoo residents sick includes water pollution (47.4%) and air
pollution (19.6%). Higher education was found to have an inverse relationship with trust in
the national government.
A limitation of this study was that farms could not be randomly selected, affecting the
representativeness of the sample. There is a major lack of knowledge pertaining to fracking
among those living in the Central Karoo which has important implications for managing the
process of public participation in the approval of shale gas exploration.