lukas maseko owns a farm here. after the 2002 land reform lukas went from being a farmhand to a landowner. >> every day i loaded my truck with pumpkins to sell on the main road. car drivers would stop and buy them. >> four years ago, a new neighbor arrived -- bringing with it a raft of problems. a decommissioned open cast coal mine was reopened as part of south africa's efforts to meet its growing energy needs. the ground is now rocked by daily explosions at the nearby mine. noise is one problem -- another is the dust cloud that hangs over lukas' fields. it covers everything -- humans, animals and crops -- with a thick layer of coal. the farm house is no longer habitable. the shock waves have left it too unstable. lukas shows us a massive crack in the wall. the visible damage isn't even the worst of it. the groundwater is contaminated by lead, nickel and other toxic heavy metals from the mines. >> there's hardly any water anymore, and what there is is dirty. >> he's convinced it's killing his livestock. he's lost ha