al jazeera. i'm hella mohit in doha with the top stories on al-jazeera at least 50 people are feared to have been killed in 2 attacks on villages in western the share it happens in man gazey an unstable region bordering mali booking a facile and been in armed groups linked to al qaida and eisel have launched attacks there in the past a correspondent with the dress has more from the capital niamey. an official said the gunman who targeted the 2 villages have crossed in tunisia from the border with mali and that is not the only problematic area in asia the border with brooke you know faso is porous and has seen attacks from armed men on groups loyal to al qaida

and islamic state and on the border with nigeria we've seen increased activity in boko haram attacks targeting not only c.v.s. but also military personnel a senior security official confirmed to al-jazeera that in one of the villages more than 50 people have been killed but it's not certain the number of people killed in the 2nd village he said a government delegation is on its way to the village to assess the situation and offer help to the victims as well as properly secure that particular location and this is all coming at a time when the country is preparing to head into another election iran of election as a result of last sunday's outcome of the presidential vote no but no one was able to score the necessary 50 percent vote to avoid a runoff now the 2 contenders for the senate for the pursuit of president in the jail here are a former head of state in this country as well as i want to minister of foreign

affairs as well as interior minister missourians are putting their hopes that with their experience in government they will build on the successes and also introduce measures that will help the country overcome its security challenges. in visual some protests in baghdad marking the years since the u.s. assassinated geranium general carson so the money he was killed by a drone strike near baghdad airports iran and the u.s. of accusing each other of escalating tensions in the run up to the anniversary earlier this week the u.s. conducted b. 52 bomber fly overs in the gulf and also sent a nuclear submarines in the region stratford tells us more about the events in iraq's capital. this was for want of a better description some sort of memorial we are expecting large protests in the capital a call out is being given to people in various cities across the country to come and join those protests those protests very much focused on demanding that the

iraqi government put pressure on the americans to withdraw the remaining soldiers and military personnel from the country and meanwhile every day people on the streets are very concerned about any potential escalation because as we've been reporting for months the protests that have dominated the streets of baghdad and other cities protesters demanding jobs better economic conditions wholesale political change in an end to corruption all during a coded pandemic these people oversee very concerned about any kind of escalation any kind of deterioration in the security of this country. health care workers in india have taken part in a drill to test the delivery of coronavirus vaccines india's drug regulator is on the verge of approving the country's 1st covert 1000 vaccines for emergency use it has the 2nd numb highest number of cases behind the united states the u.k.

has had yet another record jump in new infections announcing women 57700 on saturday alone it's adding to the urgency a vaccine will lights all spittles have been getting their 1st doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine in the u.s. ted cruz says he'll spearhead an effort by nearly a dozen fellow republican senators to overturn joe biden's election victory they plan subjects when the electoral college results are tallied in congress on january 6th but the senate's role in certifying the results is largely symbolic so kris's efforts of virtually no chance of preventing biden from taking office president trump parents refused to concede defeat and that showed today to stay with us an al-jazeera south africa toxic city is next.

at 1st glance they could be the remains of an ancient civilization. or an eye catching natural phenomenon. these strange tales surround johanna's by. the largest city in south africa. but their beauty is deceptive and toxic. in fact the dunes are made up of mining waste. from. the leftovers of south africa's most profitable industries. and within the life some disturbing secrets. now it seems that 100 journalists must time to do has uncovered the shocking truth of exactly what's in these mind tapes and just how deadly they may be.

sunrise america river basin. one of south africa's largest freshwater reserves. bridget cargan is a botanist. and a specialist in the region's biodiversity. this is a very special classroom for a lot of reasons if it's our unique but a very thirsty from not just the tourist trail but also the 1st one of our diversity is very special it's got about 14 species of fish and a lot of really endemic species of invertebrates and quite insects that contribute

to the health of the slope of this river system. there are about 200 trees species in america. that's 17 of them. and about $400.00 in the bed spaces. it is a national treasure and the north west doesn't have a lot of these river systems a lot of the systems in this province are heavily degraded. the crown jewel of this not true treasure lies just a few paddle strokes upstream. a sanctuary hidden at the heart of the resort. this is america i were at the top of america. and the water bubbles up from the underground what to kevin's at that point of the day the water is clear is anything very low conduct 70 which means there's no salt is no

pollutants in this in the system it's really very very pure. the water is crystal clear but it might not stay that way. recently the mining industry has become interested in the area subsoil which is full of precious minerals regarded as a 10 mining payments for things like. cup a silver gold in the region so does pose a risk yeah this place is different at risk and it's you know we would like to see those places as an absolute no guy for mining if you pollute this this area this this underground aquifer. you can't just get that back it's not going to come back . so could the marco river basin one day resemble the other desolate landscapes left behind by the south african mining industry. like these flat lands dyed red by chemicals. or these mine tailings

in the midst of south africa's porn stars and. some of them date back to 886 when gold was 1st discovered and understood motown culture has been. from that point on the mining industry began to deposit its to breed all around the city. more and more ways to piles of here. often only a few dozen need. yes from residents homes. some of the may look as innocent as sunday's but they are mine tailings the slag heaps of years of extraction and digging for gold. over their past. so. the day to consider is here a whole different from his book the day i. suppose i was out to disable a pussy ass which will. depreciate 170 i don't have

a disposable just. drop something for the plutocrats he wants to drive his daughter from work or still to discuss and mature enough to do. so what does it mean for those living next to these tunes. like here at snake. so does the wind come from the mind savings it flows this side of a rose this side or this side just like tiny dylan mimi is a mother of 5 she spent all her life in the shadow of one of the largest mining dumps in the country its residue is everywhere. john the neighborhood has become one huge psalm it reads your. 20 pistoles 50 you call from the coughing and sometimes yes your eyes become sick if she's ok this is not right if you go to detaining dame this is some make some chemical in it so i'm

advising you to ok not to go to mine because it's very dangerous to own the baby it's unhealthy at the same time to go you must think it or. leave it or go 'd doesn't a few months ago tiny dylan mean he wanted to find out how many people in her neighborhood of over a 1000 residents were unwell so. knocked on almost every dual this house that is keith coffee this house here the model the owner of this house is just full of this when you come here wolf in here each and every man know we mentally child out around here is coughing has a pope him of coughing as appropriate his skin some of them up only to. the man who . says. he the minute that's the male question i will wind up with a. question that needs. over one and

a half 1000000 south africans live in townships like this. at the foot of mine tailings mountains. that itself it gets into off one week this past week think this that so that is why i thought many people are here this is the silence. this dust doesn't just make people vomit or cough several children in the neighborhood suffer from severe neurological disorders. or who i believe you know for years you know. that if. you returned to 6 years old. she suffers from a paralyzing brain disease are you doing well lately however her family saying the tondo was born perfectly healthy the problems arose soon after the roof of the

house was under repair at the time and the dust from the mine cotton specially this dust you pull your good and the people. before you sleep you must face. that and everyone kids oh yeah a few weeks later the 1st signs of illness appeared in the years since the tundra has been unable to. communicate with her. when she she was to be changed. yeah and then she she kicks it is ok you know maybe when she wants you to go i said richie she kisses me and she screams no. do you know she has to go say that you want to. poverty has always prevented the family from being able to prove a link between attenders illness and the mind dust but they are no doubt if there are other peers like under our own i was the same symptoms same health issues

and i do know in days there is a pinch out there is going to be the only problem is that they are ashamed of their kids all and here they don't want anybody knowing of my day kids in this situation there's 2 of them opposite houses in the in the same street for them 2 of them or many of them you know personally personally strange is one thing they paid me you only find in here this is actually centered it in my angel tonight today telling them to do today they don't think so but if you go of any distance from here in eve you me never find this key. to find out whether the dust from the nearby mine tailings really is the cause of peace illnesses. must climb snake park hill. it has been abandoned ever since the mine was closed. access is supposedly forbidden there's nobody guarding the site

which extends over 4 square kilometers while i'm out of the all for about 60 miles from us which rivers each. day so then do me a turn the dishes on. soumitra. must take 500 grams of the sun. the dust that's blowing over the village but no. on the way down he finds a green lake at the foot of the slope. it's used mostly to area gate adjacent farmland or residents also give it to their livestock sometimes their children even bay the net of this will. ok or if i can put in will do. measure

for the. killer. was it on the screen you have put it. frankly linda is professor of environmental studies at northwest university in south africa given to me. linda is also an expert on mining illusion the government the world health organization writes with his help has developed a scientific her took a test kit for different wood to pollutants yes so i'm at the bottom of the mine turnings there's some water all around i was wondering which parameters fish do you think i should analyze 1st in the water finding. the tracks trying to. elevate. ok. i. thought that it would seem recently gone by. so going to. be done by.

missouri. and you can also take just cut. cut cut cut. cut cut cut cut. all you stick to the back it's too. much just. so i think it's likely. just so you know. this is all the. the maximum and they're going to continue to pose for them. it's impossible to analyze everything there and then so must takes another sample to check for more pollutants later. but the tests have already thrown out some serious questions. after some convincing

one of the country's top 3 gold produces agrees to a meeting. with the. gold fields 8750 kilograms of gold was mined at the site last year. the team can't go underground into the mine itself and the company will only allow them to film surface operations we get all from from the stuff. but i know you will see it on the front but there's some real. business right including we are doing a plus minus $5500.00 tons. a day i mean we have reaching out on 30 on a ton to our depends on a lot of viability and how many times of noise there is. so there or that you see on the still fall is what i mean at the plus minus 5 days but done that's always good i currently. only 5 grams of gold for each ton of coal mind that's

a remarkable ratio. and it means a huge amount of residue to be disposed of. the precious metal is separated from the rest of the and then heated in these kilns. nothing to make goes here we used to live i said no sorry not that your putting my eye to make those you know rise in the order meghan may sincerely got. the currency that c.p.r. so you add all of these together with these with the fall of. the last stages the cost at $800.00 degrees celsius for 40 minutes.

the end result gold is. at 82 percent purity each weighs in at just over 16 kilograms and is worth around $538000.00. goldfields makes 5 of these gold balls a week. producing 16200 tons of residue you equivalent to the weight of 2 of france's eiffel towers. the company has wasted human lives here on this he said constantly 24 hours a day by these pipelines connected to the factory. within a few years this hill will become another steep mountain of debris reaching up to 70 meters high. andrew passons and stephen joseph are it's grand architects. what's in there is it what it is it's. well it's it's what's left over from there from the extraction process it's the rock that. held the gold. and what's left

behind off the gold has been removed so it's silica and other materials it's a sand. in. metals but in many silica is there any other metals for example there. could be trace amounts but but very small concentrations. and some of the gold ores there is uranium sauce deep has very little you're on your minutes or so. there's very little uranium and in the us in the stomach you. can be really. not offhand i think the numbers around about 40 to 50 grams a ton. annually south african mining companies extract 10 times more uranium than gold the uranium is then abandoned leaving behind radioactive mined tailings so the kind of control you do the samples you are talking about is on daily basis the gold

from. but the radiation 15 would probably be. ok or. over time the waste produced by south africa's gold industry has formed increasingly large radioactive heaps dumped outside in the open at. according to official estimates the mine tailings surrounding johannesburg now contain an astounding 600000 tons of uranium the quantities are so high that in reality the mountains of waste should be classified by the state as nuclear installations they should be confined and secured and kept at least 500 meters away from any residential area but those rules are routinely ignored as here into the shaft a township with over 20000 residents. of. oil bruno sherry ron is an engineer in nuclear physics and an

expert from korea ratched a research association in radioactivity when i was i was government only. that commercial school shaken too much was. it would be a little bit. also paul not just on the well you know office all the moves you want a focal to do sorry you know i'm a quidditch sort of group on television i mean to depict it. i know my point of view to see not just here young men came up it even to be able. to do is if you did your in you do risk. deployed in your she thought of us of a young mom and she's. going to join in our community i don't is wrong but you don't want your little does when this point 300-0000 because you.

and you cannot still go on there's good for 3. bonus zones the country let's welcome the us because you will stay for. i just don't. know i guess you want to force the doctor to try. and they said. do you get fined i. do think it was only. 4. 100 would be too close only let it go to the. master has discovered that radioactivity levels here are close to those in the exclusion zone around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster he follows the grazing animals to eric from

gomez nearby farm. era keeps around 40 goats and a few sheep none of which seem to live very long lead them up about if they last week that's which buys you a one month 11 months of all yeah well yeah and do you do you have a lot of baby though most because of your money why do these old ones that has a for success this is a. eric wants to show us the most common symptom amongst his flock. they want to. know as well and. know what you must. but this is the fungible one it is. so all you. want to learn. and i met. so when you see these every day what do you think. was the motion and. i would

doubt about it but it's just the bins. it seems as though eric's goats have radiation sickness but evidence is needed. we are close to the mine tailings fall and. look really sick i mean according to do you own or do you think we should just have some bowl of the animals. have to take 5 samples from 2 goats intended to be used for meat consumption including one who is blind. i come up with the result of the trauma factor or the instructor thanks for you but

i. must turn takes the samples to be tested at south africa's council the scientific and industrial research. here is the water from the tailings just across the trading. it is used as a rigorous no water jesus in the usual and also for almost a drink we also have some more small samples treasurer has done with the soil was contaminated low made competitors and so what can you what can you look for years almost all day then the man goes by did and then contentment i was like yo yo now i'm the old lead you know was in the shop and in talks and can go a busy gloomy. we need an expert to get them in order once we get them then and reason on are going right. as he waits for the analysis time returns to the

investigation in part 2. as the shocking results come in he shares the news with some of those affected and comes face to face with an industry insider what i found particularly scandals to take the worst possible material which is you or any i'm grinding into dust comparable to flour and make a hill out of it and put it into place where people live petits a colossal bad idea. and a territory that's been under constant siege for 12 years. and in a state of perpetual conflict with its neighbor. women are swimming against the tides and challenging stereotypes in the isolated society. al-jazeera wild follows 5 palestinians making a difference. the new women of gaza on al-jazeera. ringback.

egypt strongman is ruling with an eye and faced on the silence from his allies is deafening the us was perfectly happy to trade off the march for sea for security while western leaders turning a blind eye when even the citizens have for them baked into his repression executions torture or censorship is not acceptable and you won't hear such strong words from let's say berlin or paris or london or man in cairo on al-jazeera i wish i had it on to other working in asia and africa there'd be days where i'd be choosing editing my own stories in a refugee camp with no electricity and right now we're confronting some of the greatest challenges that humanity has ever faced and i really believe that the only way we can do that is with compassion and generosity and compromise because of the only way we can try to solve any of these problems is together that's why al

jazeera is so important we make those connections. oh them how well he did in doha with the top stories on al-jazeera at least 50 people are feared to have been killed in 2 attacks on villages in western the share it happens in bury an unstable region bordering mali and been in armed groups and to al qaida and i saw have launched attacks there in the past a correspondent with the trees says more from the army capital. well an official told i'll just say that the attackers the gunman that targeted these 2 religious courts or into music from mali and that at least 50 people have

been killed in one of the villages he is not sure about the number of casualties in the 2nd village but he said a government delegation is already on its way to assess the situation there now we've seen increased activity in terms of operations by m groups in mali are like to either al qaida or eisel they have been vigils and protests in baghdad's marking a year since the us assassinated to reign in general qassam saw the money he was killed by a drone strike near baghdad airports iran and the u.s. accuse each other of escalating tensions in the run up to the anniversary earlier this week the u.s. conducted b. $52.00 bomber fly overs in the gulf and also sent a nuclear submarine to the region health care workers in india have taken part in a drill to test the delivery of coronavirus vaccines india's drug regulator is on the verge of approving the country's 1st school with 1000 vaccines for emergency

use it has the 2nd highest number of cases behind the us the u.k. is adding a yet another record jump a new infections and icing more than 57700 on saturday alone it's adding to the urgency of vaccine war lights all spittles have been getting their 1st doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine. in the u.s. ted cruz says he'll spearhead an effort by nearly a dozen fellow republican senators to overturn joe biden's election victory they planned to objects one electoral college results are tallied in congress on january 6th sense roland certifying the results is largely symbolic so cruz's efforts are virtually no chance of preventing biden from taking office that's. up to date back south africa toxicity.

hundreds of strange mounds lie scattered around johannesburg south africa's most populous city but they aren't a natural phenomenon they are mine tailings waste heaps left over from south africa's hugely profitable gold industry. many are also said to be dangerously toxic awash with heavy metals and poisons and radioactive debris. with expert help french journalist must time to do is getting that content scientifically analyzed. but one night while he waits for the results he gets a mysterious voicemail message along i heard that your interest. money where your around. in their mind well i would go to a mental geologist me up for a while and i would really much appreciate you you know you're going to come around again i will work about it thank you very much. the message is from

a geologist and eagle club chick after a 20 year career in the mining industry has now left it disgusted by the industry's failure to have his warnings about dealing with its waste i'll tell you what i found particularly scandals to take the worst possible material which is you radium grinding into dust comparable to flour and make a hill out of it and put it into place where people live that is a cause colossally bad idea when you when you said i would go on were you doing reports where you listened at that time i will have written lots of reports i must have some sort of a record in emails probably over the over 100 so after a while you know i was explaining look what you are proposing costs. money i mean 1st of all you have to declare the contaminates the land that is number one number 2 you can actually pump tailings all the way back where you got them from grapes them with up just

a few percent of cement and you can get rid of tailings this way is really basically put it to normal you put it back to where it was how does it make you feel when you see it is local communities complaining about that or their health problem doesn't make you fear makes you feel like a murderer. what we have done like i said we have created an enormous and we're mental disaster if we were you know growing potatoes and we made and what a mental disaster along the side it would be different we would say ok we're feeding the nation well the gold mining industry do it in a reached a small percentage of people so we have produced gold which is the most useless thing you know whole world it feeds human greed it has no uses and yet we have made in probably one of the biggest and one mental disasters in the world. so yes i do i do feel like like a murderer as eagles disturbing rising head. start heads back to sea from everett

from goma. his current century possible signs of radioactive poisoning now the test results for the animals are being delivered and person by frank bender. the janice but professor of studies also one of them aboard were joined by neighbors frank frank and. the professor has come to see eric's livestock for himself. you see here. is you. the test results a clear material from the nearby mine tailings has contaminated erik's foam and uranium isn't the only problem. for example manganese would be quite significantly elevated in your and you'll want to sample over 2 cells times what would what one would find in natural water sources we do have we do have nickel being elevated to solve in times of authentic this elevated 50 times and zinc as well solvent 500 ok

the most let's say indicative metal for mining impacts that if you're a new in those tailings that is about 10 times what you would see it in the natural environment 10 times as much so what you what you analyzed in your water you did about 100 times more than one would find it on polluted difficult pristine waters off of. a farm surrounded by pollution changed. its animals badly contaminated and. it's disturbing news. the health of your goat yeah shows the highest levels of war so. you see uranium is 60 times for elevated but all the lead is an elevated to 80 times meaning almost $100.00 times above what's normal that the same was cobalt that's the same was also in a 3 and a 600 times for nickel but maybe you didn't know if i had to know you know

dishonest ok right i can have all of the yes you can have it's all yours but soldiers. for nailing him down for you fly me. my lifestyle died prematurely townships which children have neurological disorders and suffer from terrible coughing fits. all the medical links between poor health and mining and so clear cut. stoff at the screen open health clinic might have some odd sense. among their patients is. it's the 3rd time this month that my youngest son has taken an l. . ok.

all right there is no. need to let him use. too much of this stuff it was ages of us and my. not to need to go to the left is wonderful because of them don't know. so how he's got yours. the baby has called brocade she's. i was just to introduce clint both science sometimes we see worst so you get a child with a cough like the one that i just saw. she was having a test in drawings consider that just because of the dust this is something that you will see on daily average yes you have any idea about number of clues is not

really there should be a study like you're mentioning is that everybody who are living lives through their minds if we get a lot of those patients i think definitely we have to do real estate. astonishingly the south african state has never conducted a study to understand the impact of mine tailings on the population. but can. he catches up with you again. back and have township at the foot of the mine down and out collecting. ok let's go oh it's. very heavy so you have to do this every day. this is your house ok to leash as the small shack with her 4 children.

is again as a single i like is a. claim and i'm up or. is it a corner quinola feel good telepictures and they were this tiny cabin provide some shelter from the rain but not from the pollution. and her children live only a few doesn't need to is from the mine dumps where earlier i had measured radioactivity levels 28 times higher than the norm. she agrees to provide has samples to test what level of contamination but the reason is to. give us a break will agree that the new. long songs pinay director of the institute for research and scientific expertise and streisand comes online. to mean you know. his cover will come on do you come and then he's commotions to pull. it in yeah if you blow it was he killed you gale norton i'm just you know me. i'm still me i

don't. know she. is one of the sort. of i want to put in a bit will he see what i'm into there yes you could fall and then there is this food kind of love. you put in culture get your lucky breaks yourself. lester should look back look at hobart's love that they don't pay you well that's. right if you turn. it all right that should be more than enough. for us and then. the more i mean you would put it. we got to be more. like this i want to. go next.

or a perfect. master has also taken to has song from the time to whom we mad. a little girl suffering from europe to suit us. look. this is one of a lot of thinking so dumb as to. use to look beautiful. ah. and then more 10 in total from other residents living near the mine tailings and sent them via express mail to professor pinay in france. once again they'll be a few days of waiting for the results. in the meantime looking for gold. some of south africa's most profitable export is used in the electronics industry some of it is used for investment but most of it ends up as drury yet to the

websites of the world's major luxury brands a curiously silent about the sources of the gold. on the boat you know jennifer was full of those that are. nor are any of them keen to respond to questions show that well there's one of them called just how do you know much of the green zone all do that inflow of the instance of all your business on this one to one this one is of utmost importance ships are going to communicate by leaving don't you know from the mother was was a good moment when the mongia federal police each of them to call from the city to indeed not one jewelry brand agrees to provide details of whether gold comes from. medicare and then who can you call doesn't question the reason long italian brand is the 3rd largest jeweler in the world and it certainly seems to be using a lot of gold. it's time to go shopping. who carries headquarters in. johannesburg located in sun city among some of the most expensive

real estate on the african continent in a luxurious shopping mall made by the company displays one of its finest pieces a gold and diamond necklace costing almost 70 $8700.00. but again no one hand seems to know where that gold had been sourced and we wanted to know whether it was here in the national gallery you knew where the gold comes from if you can talk about it it's a call to gold yeah the gold you use in your jewelry. or you know i you know the ones here that are ok don't you think it is kind of a surprising that you don't know where to go comes from the directors of the material believe me to tell you you know ok i've heard of the. of the consequences of my own mines as i forgot that for example the mind savings this is what you learn in january is better environment to learn

a job and that's just are is a major step by product of the 1st world where you know. it's her thank you very much for you i'll come. back in a world overshadowed by the waste dumps of south africa's vast gold mining industry . people are gathering in a church hall. tiny the activist has come to syria to exist by their drugs on people with here. so to have all the children whose has something smashed on has taken for testing.

what has spread and even the national media present. everyone wants to know what the scientists have concluded. or think you so much again for being here today i really appreciate the fact that you've come a long way to be here must all run through the results gleaned from soil and guts samples and then you cools off on some inane and straws planted in charge of analyzing the levels of heavy metal scroungers in the human hand that's been gathered lucas i want only. don't go and i was born with a huge tree of a go to guy bill so you need to be sure who. was a very good as your dodo. oh it was a. fluke if you will. always little blue should tell you who. was a shill to. do it don't do. those who.

don't. set some injustice go do do this for so forth when you would expose your post and go this was on when you were exposed to it with people who are sure that god loves you then don't go and no one is exempt because of the people i don't think it is the least was rule yet it. makes ya'll you know these findings could help south african doctors give me a tandem better diagnosis for her disease. or yours i'll be able to husband question. people which. i don't. and all those who are you with of course fill your ass if you need. more talk you need was still there and you don't need ok taken together the result a deeply disturbing. the soil gathered by much from the mine tailings is full of

heavy metals the level of all snake for example is $330.00 times higher than the norm the water is full of uranium $100.00 times the international limit the goats are infected their fur contains 83 times more lead than those living far away from the mine tailings and as for the residents some of the children show 64 times more exposure to lead 5 times more exposure to your opinion and 4 times more exposure to us nick than the average french person even jesus into easy to mean we eat is dangerous for. killing us. what can we do i don't. know it. looks a. lot but usually we don't. even miss

you know you can feel. them in that. moment the. moment. you. know. i think the way it is this is one moment and this is not my fault. people doesn't really. lose miles apart still the scientists who can be sent to the state we've had enough of this man's exposing us all so we are appealing to everybody once again to make sure that you're saying good position there was a good case you know we've lost because of insufficient evidence but now we're dead documented really like do we know it louise the universe be able to know what

they've been. doing very much once again. as residents begin planning their next move. including a possible legal claim against the mining companies. obtains an interview with the chamber of mines. the industry's association for some of south africa's most powerful mining concerns. and here are some pretty pretty dull sixes if. demeanor look at them in an effort just to someone just can't. soumitra element x. tried to put on through some 20. almost 120 years later staff in a mood runs that we're going to is ations anti-pollution department on strong for those issues because the gold producing families do not want to address

individually regarding the environmental impact of the mining industry. do you think it's it's going in the right truck on the goodwill. yes there is significant good progress achieved this far in terms of my mean companies dealing effectively with environmental impediments how's the chamber of mine ever conducted human health impact assessment regarding the tellings the mine tunings is not it's not that i'm well ok so we don't some some some smashed and then shows the same scientific analysis that he has shared with the residents back in the township we never heard about that and i don't know ok. what does that make you think now it's quite concerning for me and i think something should be done do you think that the mining industry that you represent have

a responsibility in this numbers. i think it is with our member companies mind he is we do have the responsibility. do you leave close to the mind. why not even me. i'm in most of the it's i mean most of the i mean those guys they follow the table as not the other way around they choose to go and stay there thing the people that live around the tape these 2 things this huge paintings are on drugs producing they're saying they're not safe. at all there's a lot of. environmental risks as well a safety of risks and why do you think you've been clean over all these years of yes to something should be done for the tailings that our own but when you when you say something do you think it's something where what is it about eating the midi end of we have built in of those should get rid of the yes i think we need in all

that all management strategy is the industry and obviously in putting up with government. so what does the government have to say. south africa's environment minister declines to be interviewed. and his office says that the subject is not his area of expertise. but the ministry of health on the other hand is very interested. in the evil. is director of the national institute for occupational health $1000.00. fundamentally this is of great importance to demonstrate that the levels are so

much higher and that there would be negative health effects on the children and really one of the real tragedies that the study said and why the money has not been prioritized we need to make sure that mines and other workplaces don't could. new to contaminate the living embodiment for communities and so on. would you like a copy we would absolutely love to have a copy because you see we don't have this we don't have it in and then we can go in with our medical teams and perhaps have a sample of those who have got high levels. of these different heavy metals and you raney and and go in more physical examination do blood tests do unit tests and monitor their. the south african government will soon begin

a major study on the health impacts of mining pollution. but time is of the essence in 2017 mining companies extracted 130 tons of gold from south african soil. producing 27000000 600000 tonnes of supplementary waste. more ways to be produced next year and the next one and the one after that. there are still 35 years remaining of exploitable gold reserves in south africa. how many move it dims will have to be in that time before people realise that life is more precious than gold.

how i would say is a rather nasty weather pushing away from the eastern seaboard of the u.s. except this massive cloud easing out it's been cooler air coming in behind as we go through the next couple of days so we are going to see temperatures falling away as we go on through the next day or 2 it was west some rather lively storms are rolling in here i think increasingly wintry modern around 345 degrees there into d.c. and for new york some rain coming through once again snow on the northern flank of that central areas of the u.s. central parts of canada want to try if a little on the cold side there's that very active weather over towards the west not a dusting of snow coming in across the mountain states and then this next system will push through as we go on into monday

a very nasty looking system this through the pacific northwest and snow they're coming in over the cascades pushing into the rockies see her snow extends a fair way south as well into northern parts of california could see some more snow just around the lakes just around on teria to the east of that turning a little bit i mean that's cold air for neocon d.c. getting up to around 6 or 7 celsius further south we got some rain making its way across florida follow that line of cloud and right into the yucatan peninsula but for much of the caribbean it's largely dry want to too shall pass. from. january on al-jazeera it's 10 years since the arab spring sold to bring change to the middle east al-jazeera looks into how successful look at pollutions what a new documentary series examines the history and giancana takes of drug trafficking and the way states and drug lords abused it as an instrument of power

a spark selections are being doled out around the world hope of returning to normal comes back again with media trends constantly changing listening post continues to analyze how the news is covered up to one of the most intense election campaigns the u.s. is set to inaugurate its cool to 6 1st of. january on al-jazeera. on a new toys highway to india girls as young as 10 work as prostitutes. one woman is travels to the villages where parents still live under rights to host the photon al-jazeera. one of the last remaining ancient forests in southeast asia is a lifeline to hundreds of lumberjacks and drivers. move we follow their treacherous journey as they walk through extreme conditions. to gather and

transport this dangerous but precious cargo risking it all tonio. on al-jazeera. as conflict hit me sharon prepares for a presidential runoff vote attackers raid 2 villages killing at least 50 people. over there and how they are here day in and this is al jazeera my friend dohan also coming up india's drug regulator on the verge of approving to covert 19 vaccines to the country looks to inoculate 300000000 people within 8 months of doses from the oxford astra zeneca vaccine start.