Countryreport Uganda
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- Published: Wednesday, 30 November -0001 01:00
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UGANDAN JOINT MINERS REPORT
STRUGGLES AND CHALLENGES
UGANDAN MINERS ARE FACING
Presenter: Mwambu Margaret Jane
Country Uganda
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Miners workers in Uganda are treated like animals as you can see from the pictures
This report was composed by miners former workers from uganda
Uganda is a pearl of Africa but due to poverty most miners workers are facing a financial challenges in uganda, I was once a miners worker in Lake Katwe (salt) Digging the salt from Lake Katwe involves standing waist or chest deep in toxic water for hours at a time.
It evolves a lot of bending double and waist-deep in water, one has to hold a breath as he/she struggles to gouge out another shovel of stinking black mud. The air is thick with the bad-egg stench of hydrogen sulphide mixed with ammonia. The equatorial sun beats one down on his/her naked back, leaving a salty sheen that is a very big challenge in Uganda.
Poverty:
Poverty campaigners say that a deal on both finance and emissions cuts will be vital to improve the lot of people like women and men campaigns and policy director, said: "Lake Katwe is symptomatic of poverty around the world today … World leaders have so far failed to tackle the difficult decisions needed to confront the threat of climate change, but the longer they shy away from it, the worse and more widespread the problem is going to be."due to poverty miners children are facing as you can see.
The salt miners, meanwhile, are gambling with their health. The hypersaline water sucks moisture from their bodies and infuses them with toxic chemicals – the dead lake taking a toll on the living.
Many workers improvise as best they can. Men tie plastic bags around their genitals or wear condoms in an effort to avoid the extreme desiccating effects of the brine, while some women put flour inside their vaginas as a barrier to the toxic water. These improvised strategies have little effect and sexual health problems are rife among the Katwe workers. Families have broken due to their beloved ones are know longer functioning, that is a very big challenge in Uganda.
PROBLEMS MINERS WORKERS ARE FACING
"It's very dangerous," head porter at Katwe, who describes impotence as a major problem for workers. Salt from Katwe has been central to the local economy for centuries; but the miners, salt-processors and porters who carry bags of salt to waiting trucks see few of the spoils.
Struggles:
A resendence of miners workers in uganda
Major challenge miners are facing is no market linkage
It is extremely labour-intensive and they sell what they get out of it at very low prices," said Mrs Magumba . "This is why they have remained poor, especially those who actually do the mining."
Miners workers are treated like animals as you can see from the picture, one can work for one month without pay, its only the miners directors are the ones gaining out of our labor
Prices are too low for the product
Katwe, a volcanic crater fed by several streams, has no outlet, meaning that intense evaporation during the dry seasons concentrates minerals in the hypersaline water. To extract salt, the miners have constructed large semi-permanent pools around the edges of the lake to intensify the evaporation. These pools, or saltpans, are held together by sticks and mud. Their ownership is crucial. The saltpan's proprietor takes a cut of whatever a miner working the pan can extract.
The miners workers are trying to sell the product but know market linkage due to poverty