Last week there was a protest of Thousands of workers, most of them workers in the fishing industry at Walvis Bay, against phosphate mining. The protesters marched from the fishing factories in the harbor town to the Walvis Bay office of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. A similar march took place in Windhoek at the following day.
There are a lot of mining companies, most of them foreign companies or foreign stakeholders, practicing Marine Phosphate Mining in the Namibian sea. One week before the protest the ministry of Environment and Tourism canceled the environmental clearance certificate to the company Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP). Since 2015 the company got a granted environmental clearance license. Marine phoshate mining means to mine several meters under the sea, which can be very harmful for the sea and fishing industry. The 170.000 workers of the fishing industry rise the justified demand of ending phosphate mining, which is harmful for their jobs and their environment.
Already in 2016 big protests of fishery workers, mostly women, were made against phoshate mining and demanded its stop.
