Harmonise issues on environment, artisanal miners

Although there has been production of moderate quality salt for decades, development of the Ugandan salt mining industry has for long lagged behind following failed attempts of a salt factory that was corroded due lack of a pre-feasibility study on the chemical nature of the salt. 

Lake Katwe, one of the best salty Lakes in Africa, has a untapped potential surrounding its bi-products as current technologies reveal. From brine reserves that can produce edible table salt for local consumption, to potentially fueling the country’s hydrogen economy. 

Infact, a number of characterisation studies have revealed that raw brine from the lake is rich in sodium, chlorine, potassium carbonates sulphate ions, with traces calcium, magnesium and bio-carbonate ions all of which if properly exploited, the country can produce in surplus.

Amid all this great potential however, there’s still a lot of lingering higgy-hagga around issues that would otherwise pave the way to fueling economic resource maximisation inhibiting potential industrialisation. 

Domestically, salt is mined in small plots of 10 by 12 feet wide and 3 to 5 feet deep, known as salt pans, on the shores of Lake Katwe. These are owned by private individuals and families that they’re passed down through generations. Currently, the number of salt miners is said to be between 6,000 and 10,000. These artisanal miners, however, recently faced an eviction threat.
 
Although the artisanal miners, through Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), an advocacy organisation whose main objectives is to promote environmental conservation and community rights in the extractives sector, petitioned the Energy minister arguing that “When this is done, it is expected that the more than 5,000 salt miners will be evicted from the salt lake,” the perplexation was still ongoing. 

In the dubbed “government evicting government” saga, UDC accused the Ministry of Energy of wrongfully awarding a salt exploration licence on Lake Katwe to a private firm, which was set to invest $390 million (about Shs1.4 trillion) in salt mining and mineral beneficiation at Lake Katwe, a decision that UDC wanted rescinded.

This came at a time when Uganda’s mining legal framework doesn’t define what surface rights are and how they may be acquired for public land or resources in consultation with resource-dependent communities or stakeholders yet neither the 2003 Mining Act, nor its attendant regulations, define and provide for the above as AFIEGO argued in their petition.

Environmental-wise, arguments are that tampering with the lake catchment that consists of several water streams that refresh the salty lake and the restored vegetation (trees) at the shores might cause silting and flooding of the salty lake, leading to extinction like it was almost five years ago, Lake Katwe neighbours Queen Elizabeth National Park a sanctuary for fauna and that drilling for salt might not only affects Lake Katwe, but also Lake Munyanyage, negatively affecting the biodiversity.

Therefore, issues to do with gaps in Uganda’s mining framework, environmental threats posed to the flora and fauna surrounding the lake, a fall back plan for the to-be displaced artisanal miners since there is fear that even if the company is to provide jobs, it will never ever sustain the livelihoods of thousands of communities that depend on the lake. 

If not promptly addressed, there is a likelihood of stagnated development around the lake region and Uganda continuing to rely on imported salt to feed its population coupled with failure to explore a potential resource that would otherwise make us a hub of surplus chemical elements. So government and concerned bodies ought to act promptly.

Solomon A. Mutagaya is a chemical engineer, quality assurance engineer at kcl group.