Uranium Thirst

Brazil, 2010, 27 min, English with German subtitles

This documentary is about uranium mining and uranium prospecting in Namibia and its effects on the local population, environment and the scarce water resources of the Kuiseb Valey. Namibia has 2 uranium mines. Another 10 are planned. Exploration is going on in the territory of the Topnaar-Nama people. Their natural resources, their water and life are jeopardized. Uranium mining is not only producing radioactive dust. It is also wasting huge amounts of water, which is destructive for the homeland of the Topnaar-Nama. Centre of the film are the Nama villages along the Kuiseb and Nama King Samuel Khaxab, who started a campaign to inform his people about the radioactive and environmental risks of Uranium mines. "We want to stop the uranium mining", he says. The Nama are parents of the San living in the Kalahari. They share the same language family based on click and clack sounds. German colonizers once expelled the Nama (called Hottentot) from most of their land along the Namibian coast because it was rich in diamonds. Later they were expelled from nearly the rest of their land in the name of nature conservation. What is left is the Kuiseb Valey.

"Uranium Thirst" and "Uranium Not in Nisa" are not part of the competive category of the Uranium Film Festival.