Let us utilise the available resources
UGANDA is one of the countries with huge deposits of salt in Lake Katwe, located in the western part of the country. The salt content of the lake water is said to be approximately 13.5 % while the lake bed is 0.8 metres thick and contains over 13 million metric tonnes of salt.
UGANDA is one of the countries with huge deposits of salt in Lake Katwe, located in the western part of the country. The salt content of the lake water is said to be approximately 13.5 % while the lake bed is 0.8 metres thick and contains over 13 million metric tonnes of salt.
The lake has salt stocks that can sustain an industrial extraction plant with a production capacity of 168 tonnes per day or seven tonnes per hour for 34 years.
In spite of the existence of huge salt deposits, Uganda ironically imports 95% of its salt from mainly the neighbouring Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the acting commissioner of the department of geological surveys and mines John Odida, Uganda depends on imported salt because the country does not have a processing plant and the “right technology†required in salt mining and processing.
The Government, according to Odida, has renewed its interest in salt mining and the trade ministry is promoting Lake Katwe as one of the investment opportunities in the country.
It is unfortunate that a country endowed with vast salt deposits continues to incur huge amounts of money on imported salt. This raises a fundamental question. Are we utilising or exploiting all our available resources for development? Obviously we have not taken advantage of the enormous resources at our disposal to achieve economic transformation.
In the case of salt in Lake Katwe, it is the local people in the area who for generations have been extracting the salt using rudimentary and hazardous methods on small scale. In the 1970s, the Amin regime attempted to establish a salt processing plant, but was unsuccessful. The Government should, as a matter of priority, work on the salt project. The viability of the project isn’t in doubt.
The lake has salt stocks that can sustain an industrial extraction plant with a production capacity of 168 tonnes per day or seven tonnes per hour for 34 years.
In spite of the existence of huge salt deposits, Uganda ironically imports 95% of its salt from mainly the neighbouring Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the acting commissioner of the department of geological surveys and mines John Odida, Uganda depends on imported salt because the country does not have a processing plant and the “right technology†required in salt mining and processing.
The Government, according to Odida, has renewed its interest in salt mining and the trade ministry is promoting Lake Katwe as one of the investment opportunities in the country.
It is unfortunate that a country endowed with vast salt deposits continues to incur huge amounts of money on imported salt. This raises a fundamental question. Are we utilising or exploiting all our available resources for development? Obviously we have not taken advantage of the enormous resources at our disposal to achieve economic transformation.
In the case of salt in Lake Katwe, it is the local people in the area who for generations have been extracting the salt using rudimentary and hazardous methods on small scale. In the 1970s, the Amin regime attempted to establish a salt processing plant, but was unsuccessful. The Government should, as a matter of priority, work on the salt project. The viability of the project isn’t in doubt.