Malawi 's Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace has accused Australian-based uranium miner Paladin Energy of back tracking on pledges to the people of the Karonga region where it operates the Kayelekera Uranium Mine.

The commission, a human rights arm of the Roman Catholic Church, has called for a meeting with the miners and traditional chiefs after accusing the energy company of not doing enough to protect water sources from uranium deposits. The group fears the deposits could pollute Lake Malawi, one of Africa's fresh water areas and the third largest lake on the continent.

"Paladin is making shortcuts in their original design of water supply project to areas surrounding Karonga by overseeing the designs and construction of such water projects when initially it was agreed that the Northern Region Water Board should take charge of the projects," CCJP chairperson, the Rev. Charles Chinula, had said at a meeting earlier in April.

The meeting followed reports that Paladin wants to take water from Lake Malawi instead of underground water as earlier agreed when civil society organisations had complained that uranium mining would pollute water sources in Karonga, a district that borders Tanzania.

Chinula also accused Paladin of relaxing safety at the mine and covering up injury reports. Two people from the mine died of burns in a South African hospital in March. A statement from Paladin about the accident said three subcontractors were injured in a flash fire at the mine when solvent cleaning fluid used in a steel tank ignited.

"We have reports that some people have died at Kayelekera and no post-mortem has been conducted," said Chinula. He said the CCJP also had reports that some officials at the mine concealed injuries and had "forced workers not to report anywhere, let alone go to hospital".

A Paladin official denied the allegations.

"These allegations are coming in because of misunderstanding and information gap between us, CCJP, chiefs and the community in Karonga," Paladin Country Manager Neville Hauxam told The Daily Times. "We pledge total transparency in the running of the mine."

Hauxam said there was no danger in the mine extracting water from Lake Malawi and he repeated the company's position that uranium mining would not pollute water sources in the district.